Author: Kimani Chege

Hawassa Industrial park sits 140 miles south of Addis Ababa. The park was built by China Civil Engineering Corporation in 2016 and has so far attracted several international companies. The park is part of a long-term vision to grow Ethiopia into a production hub. It houses factories including textile and agro-processing and has 25,000 employees producing garments. In the last 5 to 6 years, the textile, and apparel industry have grown at an average of 51% and more than 65 international textile investment projects have been licensed for foreign investors, during this period. According to the World Investment Report, Ethiopia…

Kenya will be hosting the 23rdSession of the FAO/WHO Codex Coordinating Committee for Africa to discuss and formulate strategies on improving food safety and quality in Kenya, Africa, and the world. The event comes in the wake of increasing public concern over the rise of adulterated food products like sugar and dairy products as well as cases of wrong use of preservation chemicals for meat products in Kenya. The one-week conference dubbed “A Quest for Trade in safe food” runs from 2nd – 6th September 2019 and is being hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO)…

Longhorn Publishers PLC, the Kenyan book publishers with strong presence in East and Central Africa has announced its financial results, with group profit after tax for the year ended 30 June 2019 rising by 1%, to Kshs 185 million, from Kshs 183 million in 2018. The Company attributes this performance to commendable growth in Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania, as well as the positive response to the rollout of Kenya’s new competency-based curriculum (CBC), in which Longhorn has played a significant role in its implementation by having distributed 2 million textbooks to 23,000 public primary schools in Kenya. Mr. Maxwell Wahome,…

The Aga Khan University in Nairobi is positioning itself as a leading trainer of journalists and media professionals in East Africa and beyond through its Graduate School of Media and Communications (GSMC). The university which has so far established a formidable partnership with foreign institutions of higher learning is quickly earning the hearts of media professionals in the region. During the ongoing, The East African Communication Association (EACA) Conference, media trainers and scholars drawn from the region have heaped praises on the institution based on the unique approaches it is employing in raising the standards of media training in the…

Sub-Saharan African clothing and footwear market is worth $31 billion US dollars and growing. In a series of articles about the industry in Sub Sahara Africa, we will explore the policies, trade and the budding creative fashion industry in the region. This is the second part of the series where we focus on the raw material for the textile industry. Read the first of our series:  Africa Fashionomics: Making sense of the $31 Billion industry Kenya has taken years to review and establish a commercially viable production of a variety of cotton laced with foreign genes from the naturally occurring bacterium…

Sub-Saharan African clothing and footwear market is worth $31 billion US dollars and growing. In a series of articles about the industry in Sub Sahara Africa, we will explore the policies, trade and the budding creative fashion industry in the region. The African Fashion catchment Africa drink, eat, and sleep fashion. The diversity of the culture of this huge continent ensures its almost 1.3 billion inhabitants wear or dream to wear certain clothing and apparel. With the population of the continent becoming younger by the day, the demand for fashion that sends a message and identity of an individual is…

Global consultancy Palladium has announced its first impact investment fund to bridge the financing gap for small businesses in sub-Saharan Africa. The “Palladium Impact Fund I” is expected to raise USD 40 million to provide much-needed capital for SMEs in emerging markets. The fund, which will focus on agribusiness value chains and off-grid clean energy in Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya, aims to alleviate poverty and economically empower over 500,000 rural households. It intends to create at least 3,500 full-time jobs, of which 60 percent will be for women. Investors will include foundations, family offices, pension funds, and institutional investors. Palladium…

The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) has appointed Mercy Wanjau as the acting Director-General to replace Francis Wangusi whose tenure has ended, despite the former refusing to vacate office noting that the process to appoint a replacement. The CA Board of Directors Chairman Ngene Gituku, however, said the appointment has been made to ensure that CA continues to discharge its mandate seamlessly. Mercy Wanjau is a commercial lawyer, a regulatory and governance professional currently working with the Communications Authority of Kenya as the Director of Legal Services and Board Secretary. She has been involved in designing and harmonizing policy and…

The Japanese city of Yokohama prepares to host African leaders and business delegation during the Seventh Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD7) will be held in Yokohama from 28th to 30th August 2019. This is a Summit-level international conference on Africa’s development which was initiated by Japan since 1993. What is striking about TICAD is that rather than being a stage for bilateral relations between Japan and African countries, it uses a multilateral framework involving the participation of international organizations. It is also broadly accessible to diverse stakeholders, including those from private enterprise, academia, and civil society, with the…

Silafrica, a leading packaging supplier to East Africa and surrounding regions and trusted supplier to some of the largest food and beverage brands like Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Diageo, Heineken, Unilever, and others, has become the first African-based company in the packaging industry to join the Pledge 1% movement. Pledge 1% is a global movement that encourages and empowers companies of all sizes and stages of growth to give one percent of either their profit, equity, staff time or product to any charity of their choosing. This global campaign is dedicated to creating a new normal, whereby giving back is integrated into…