Africa is home to at least 47 foreign military outposts, with the US controlling the largest number. Djibouti is the only country in the world to host both American and Chinese outposts.

A recent survey by Afrobarometer across 34 countries indicated that 63 per cent of the population see China’s influence in Africa as positive, whilst 60 per cent made similar comments about the US. Are there benefits to be extracted from this searing rivalry?

Africa’s Agenda 2063 on the ‘Africa we want’ set by the African Union, advocates under its first aspiration, a ‘Prosperous Africa based on inclusive growth and sustainable development’ and ‘A Strong, United, Resilient and Influential Global Player and Partner’ under aspiration 7.

The company has been in existence for about 130 years and in that period amassed a substantial portfolio of businesses that comprise hospitality, food retail, agriculture, and security services. The large size of the company and dominance in the markets made it a darling of the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange.

At the height of its conglomerate strategy, the company owned everything from food retailers, department stores, a cotton printing company, tea estates, and a bank. Meikles was even called Kingdom Meikles Africa during its short-lived with Kingdom Financial Holdings.

The company divested its financial services interest in a demerger after an acrimonious shareholder and boardroom dispute and so began the drive to refocus its business activities around its core businesses namely retail, hospitality, security services, real estate, and agriculture. Meikles recently announced that it would be discontinuing its mining activities.

These prospective customer circumstances have provided the proverbial “ace” which Capitec has played very successfully during its 21 years of existence.

Capitec’s success is attributable largely to the leadership of one man Stassen and the support of his team. Stassen for his part is not a traditional banker, he was during his time at the helm of the bank an even more unconventional CEO.

In his own words, he is non-hierarchical, consultative, and often informal in his approach. By his own admission, he is not a natural reader but said that he learns a lot from observation… Typically the average chief executive is said to read at least 52 books a year… but then Stassen was not an average CEO.

It further explains that the RCF disbursement will continue to help address Tanzania’s urgent balance of payment needs arising from the Covid-19 pandemic.

The money will also serve to provide Tanzania with concessional resources needed to take measures to mitigate the severe socio-economic impact of the pandemic.

Tanzania’s economy is heavily dependent on the tourism industry and as yet, the IMF cautions that travel services receipts and travel arrivals continue to remain below pre-pandemic levels.

The CBK has also issued circulars to local commercial banks warning them against dealing with cryptocurrencies transactions or face penalties for non-compliance.

The last circular was issued in 2018 and has remained in action up until now.

While delivering the monetary policy announcement where the monetary policy committee retained the base lending rate at seven per cent for the 12th time, Dr Patrick said that their position had not changed on any of the crypto products in the market.

EAC Secretariat Secretary-General Peter Mathuki has hailed the governments of the Republic of Rwanda and…