Author: Opinion

Insurance brokers in Kenya, as well as insurance agencies, can negotiate terms requiring insurance coverage under credit terms, as happens in the banking industry. The article seems to go all out to malign the insurance agents’ names by saying they are the ones owing the billions.

This gives the impression there could be a hidden motive in the penning of the article. The Kenyan insurance sector is highly regulated, and a working regulator should ensure that such cases are unheard of with licensed insurance agents in Kenya.

According to the Insurance Act Cap 487 Section 156 talks about insurance premiums and the manner in which they are supposed to be remitted to the insurer. Insurance brokers in Kenya are supposed to remit their premiums immediately after they receive the same from the client. Other intermediaries have a certain window within which they are supposed to remit the premiums and this goes for all the licensed insurance agents in Kenya.

More importantly though, a clear signal was sent to the EU Parliament that the colonial days are over and that meddling in affairs and interfering with matters that are of the exclusive sovereign remit of the host countries, Uganda and Tanzania, is simply not tolerated.

Following the EU Parliament’s action, Total Energies is to appear before the Parliament for a hearing and answer queries that the members of parliament will have. That coupled with the fact that Total has an ongoing court case in France regarding an allegation of its failure to put in place an adequate vigilance plan covering health, safety, environment, and human rights risks as required by French law, related to the the same EACOP project, it will be interesting to see whether or not Total Energies might drop out of the project at the risk of being exposed to breach of contract claims by the other Parties to the venture.Total Energies controls EACOP legal shareholding since it has the majority.

However, it may be a small price to pay amid the increasing pressure in France and Europe for green and climate friendly projects. Worldwide, financiers are avoiding investments in fossil fuels projects and looking for what is hailed as green investments.

The opposition was excluded, the army shot protesters in the post-electoral uprise, and according to Amnesty, at least 5 people were killed during the last election, and several hundred were arrested or exiled.  Since then, nothing has changed.  Repressive laws and regulations that excluded opposition from the past elections are still in place, and opposition leaders are still in prison; a crackdown on dissenting voices is still occurring, except now Talon has blackmailed, corrupted and coerced local politicians into participating in the 2023 election to legitimize his electoral holdup.

Therefore, his August 30th declaration before the Business community in France in the presence of French President Emmanuel Macron, is not an accident but by design and should be taken seriously because back home, Talon had already started the process of changing the country’s constitution after January 2023.

The January 2023 legislative elections represent another major challenge for the country but an opportunity for Patrice Talon and if he gets his way, 2023 will toll the bell on Benin’s democratic adventure forever. Patrice Talon is now manoeuvring to secure a third term in office and will leverage the upcoming legislative electoral process to do it. And the tell-tale signs are here.

For practical reasons, European gas buyers need to find a way to make up for the supplies missing from Russia. And for both policy and practical reasons, Brussels wants to deny Moscow the opportunity to continue using gas supplies as a blunt instrument with which to threaten Europe in the future.

The change isn’t going to be immediate. Reducing Russia’s profile in the EU’s energy mix will take time. But the process of supply reduction is underway, and it has already opened up new opportunities for African gas producers to acquire market share in Europe. I expect those opportunities to last beyond the near term as the EU attempts to establish a new combination of gas suppliers to replace Russia over the next few years. 

I also hope Africa’s emerging gas producers take advantage of new LNG technologies, such as the modular Fast LNG solutions offered by New Fortress Energy (NFE), a U.S.-based company, to meet European demand for gas. With these technologies, they won’t have to wait as long or spend as much money to begin producing the LNG that European consumers are clamouring to buy.

One of the many lessons learned from the pandemic is that SMEs need to embrace digital transformation, not just to weather unplanned challenges but because it will help them be more competitive and stable. Digital enablement is not just a means of survival. It is a way for SMEs to conduct business more efficiently, which in turn can empower them to expand their operations and earnings further. 

Being nimbler than their big business counterparts, SMEs can quickly rethink their marketing strategies and adopt new technologies to enhance their offerings faster. Digital innovation provides extraordinary opportunities for SMEs. It empowers them to implement new market models, has a greater line of sight across their business, improves traceability, and meet their customers, service providers, and logistics partners, in many instances, all on the same page. 

In the digital trading space, solutions such as import/export platforms, automated cargo-tracking and digital reporting of non-tariff barriers can significantly provide efficient cross-border trade levelling the playing field for SMEs. This, in turn, is good for both the customers and communities they serve as well as the continent’s economic growth on a wider scale.

Digitalization brings new opportunities in trade and creates the potential to underpin resilience in times of crisis The digital transformation of customs and borders in Africa could improve efficiencies in processes and yield trade gains on the continent of US$20 billion a year Single Window can cross-check credentials for consistency and traceability, reducing errors and fraud The digital transformation of customs and borders in Africa could improve efficiencies in processes and yield trade gains on the continent of US$20 billion a year. Digitalization brings new opportunities in trade and creates the potential to underpin resilience in times of crisis. The…

Tax relief or a better legal framework for SMEs and start-ups would have been a major milestone for Tanzania’s private sector development agenda, however, the Finance Act does not address the heavy burden that start-ups and SMEs face when doing business in Tanzania and furthermore the proposed allocation of local government to the improvement of local entrepreneurship infrastructure was proposed, it was subsequently removed along with the contribution of local government finances to women entrepreneurs as well.

It would have been an opportunity for the Finance Act to enact amendments to certain Anti-Money Laundering Act and Economic Crimes Act provisions that treat tax offences as economic crimes or money laundering offences that are unbailable offences when they should be treated as tax offences that attract hefty fines and/or penalties.

Other areas that could have been amended are the problematic provisions of the Tax Administration Act including section 52(10) which provides that an objected assessment/decision is confirmed and subject to appeal if the Commissioner fails to determine it within 6 months of admission to name just a few.

From cement to food and beverages to metal production and processing, manufacturing organisations are looking for sustainable energy solutions to help them refine their costs and efficiencies so they can better compete on the local and global stages. Energy provision is now being pulled from mini-grid installations, solar plants, gas plants, wind energy, and rental. The latter becoming increasingly popular as organisations recognise the value of a trusted third-party service provider over having to manage, maintain and install their energy solutions on their own. 

Using a supplier that provides the right technologies to remote, rural and high-demand environments allows for the organisation to enhance power production while minimising the administration and cost impact. Leveraging energy-efficient, environmentally friendly and sustainable systems that bypass reliance on diesel and instead introduce hybrid offerings that combine gas, LNG, solar, and diesel means that companies can build stable and reliable energy platforms that not only reduce costs but also risks. 

Aggreko has a proven track record in providing manufacturing and mining organisations with trusted energy resilient solutions. The company collaborated with a car manufacturing plant in South Africa that was expanding its paint shop and required additional temperature control for paint cooling, particularly during the hot summer months. The complexity added by an automatically controlled bypass caused flow issues with the cooling equipment and the right level of cooling was required to enable them to make use of the expansion to increase production. 

To meet its growing energy needs and increase electricity access across the population, Mozambique must build 1.3GW of new power capacity over the next decade.    A further 2GW would be needed to support the planned development of the Beluluane Industrial Park in Maputo province. The challenge facing policymakers today is to identify and develop an optimal energy mix at the lowest total cost to service this growing demand. A recent study carried out by Wärtsilä shows that investing in a combination of renewables and gas would save US$2 billion and 25 million tonnes of CO2 by 2032 compared to adding…

TaRL is a unique intervention for accelerated learning that supports children who would have otherwise been left behind to learn and thrive. Pioneered by Pratham, an Indian NGO, the approach that has now been piloted in several African countries, including Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, and Zambia, has revealed that learning outcomes improved with three months of accelerated learning focused on foundational skills through the support of TaRL Africa.  

TaRL evaluates children using a simple assessment tool and then groups them according to learning level rather than age or grade. Each group is taught using appropriate fun/play activities and materials, starting from what the child already knows. In Nigeria, for instance, the percentage of children who could read a simple English word increased by 30 percentage points after only 114 hours (on average) of participating in a TaRL pilot. 

Schools can ensure that children are never too far behind by targeting teaching to what learners already know. TaRL has provided evidence that by relieving the constraint of poorly targeted instruction, children’s learning can improve significantly.