Browsing: Africa

Kenya’s top commercial law firm MMC Africa Law has teamed up with Africa’s international law firm ASAFO & CO to form MMC ASAFO, in a merger likely to shake the continental space.

In order to provide a unique and integrated offering of top-tier legal services exclusively dedicated to the African continent, the MMC ASAFO team is based in different offices, with a balanced presence in France and in the major African business hubs of Nairobi, Abidjan, Casablanca and Johannesburg.

The merged entities are keen tap on the African Continental Free Trade Area which came into effect this year, congregating over 1.2 billion people in the world’s largest free trade zone.

READ ALSO:How East African businesses are going to lead the AFCTA

According to MMC ASAFO East Africa Team Leader Edward Muriu, African economies are among the fastest growing in the world today with a powerful industrial revolution which is …

East African based WeFarm the digital network for global small-scale agriculture, have announced it has raised $13 million in a Series A financing round led by Silicon Valley venture capital firm True Ventures.

This financing round will help Wefarm further scale its network of 1.9 million farmers, and its newly created Marketplace, to connect farmers in Africa, even those without internet access, to the information, products and services they need to be more successful. Investing alongside True Ventures are AgFunder and June Fund, among others. The company received significant follow-on investments from LocalGlobe, ADV and Norrsken Foundation.

Founded in 2015, Wefarm is on a mission to create a global eco-system for small-scale agriculture. With more than 1 billion people directly involved in small-scale farming, it is the biggest industry in the world. Wefarm is building the network of trust for those farmers.

Wefarm Marketplace allows farmers to easily access quality …

Recently, Africa has enjoyed a lot of global attention. Overtures from partners all over the world have been relentless. Africa has had summits with China, Japan and Russia.

To take stock of the importance or lack thereof, it is politic to look at Africa’s continental vision and how international relations could help to realise it. The transformation of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) into the African Union (AU) was not a mere exercise in shorter nomenclature; it signalled a break from some of the imponderable challenges that Africa could not solve through the OAU.

The AU said it differs from the OAU because it envisages “an integrated, prosperous, equitable and well-governed and peaceful United States of Africa, effectively managed by its own citizens and representing a creative and dynamic force in the international arena”. The First Strategic Plan of Action Horizon 2007 was meant to shape strategic relations with …

The Kenyan government is considering a Ksh1.6 billion ($15.4million) financing option for smallholder tea farmers across the country to help them diversify their products.

Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mwangi Kiunjuri has said that the proposal, which is now before the Head of Public Service, Joseph Kinyua, and the Cabinet for consideration, involves a financing model for smallholder tea factories to set up black orthodox tea production units.

READ ALSO:Kenyan tea farmers capture World Bank’s climate change deal

Black orthodox Tea is loose tea which is produced using the traditional method of tea production:plucking, withering, rolling, oxidation and drying.

It has an aroma that is easily identifiable and fetches more prices at the tea auction than the normal tea – thus the need for enhanced production of this type of tea to help cushion farmers from the volatile prices associated with traditional teas.

“In a bid to help our tea farmers …

The Doing Business 2020 study shows that developing economies are catching up with developed economies in the ease of doing business.

Still, the gap remains wide. An entrepreneur in a low-income economy typically spends around 50 per cent of the country’s per-capita income to launch a company, compared with just 4.2 per cent for an entrepreneur in a high- income economy. It takes nearly six times as long on average to start a business in the economies ranked in the bottom 50 as in the top 20.

There’s ample room for developing economies to catch up with developed countries on most of the Doing Business indicators. Performance in the area of legal rights, for example, remains weakest among low- and middle-income economies.

Doing Business recognizes the important work countries have done to improve their regulatory environments. Among the 10 economies that advanced the most, efforts were focused on the areas …

More than 50 African leaders made their way to the Black Sea resort city of Sochi on Oct. 23-24 for the inaugural Russia-Africa summit.

The summit is widely seen as a reflection of Russia’s push for economic and military influence in Africa. More than 3,000 delegates from African countries and Russia are at the summit to discuss everything from nuclear energy to natural resources extraction.

All 55 African states sent a representative to the meeting, including 43 heads of state or government, according to Kremlin advisor Yuri Ushakov.

“We currently export to Africa $25 billion worth of food — which is more than we export in arms, at $15 billion. In the next four to five years I think we should be able to double this trade, at least,” Putin said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin met with his Egyptian counterpart Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi before the two leaders opened the first-ever Russia-Africa …

There has never been a better time to invest in Africa, says South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.

He said the continent’s governments are committed to creating the necessary enabling environment for business to flourish. Calling on the investor community to “harness the climate of reform” sweeping the continent and “take advantage of its momentum,” he said: “there has never been a better time to invest in Africa”.

Ramaphosa was speaking at the Financial Times Africa Summit in London, where other speakers included former Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

The launch of the African Continental Free Trade Area will “bring together into a single market 54 nations of some 1.2 billion people and a combined GDP of over $3 trillion,” Ramaphosa said.

He compared its significance for Africa to the 1992 Maastricht Treaty which created “a new era of European cooperation and integration”. This follows the enabling African Continental Free Trade …

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines is set to launch the latest version of the Boeing 787-10 aircraft on the Amsterdam- Nairobi route next month, months after flying the aircraft to Tanzania.

The fuel-efficient aircraft will offer passengers on the route a more comfortable flying experience with its top of the range features offering more comfort and less fatigue.

The Dutch national carrier is introducing the latest version of the Boeing 787-10 aircraft into its fleet in a move that will see Kenya become the second destination in KLM’s global network to receive the new aircraft, after Tanzania in July this year.

READ ALSO:KLM CEO resigns from KQ Board

This underscores KLM’s efforts in investing in Africa and local markets.

KLM is the first European carrier to fly this new type of aircraft, cementing its position as a pioneer in aviation. It is one of the airlines that continues to make …

Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa has slowed through 2019, hampered by persistent uncertainty in the global economy and slow pace of domestic reforms, World Bank has said.

According to the 20^th edition of Africa’s Pulse, World Bank’s biannual economic update for the region, overall growth in Sub-Saharan Africa is projected to rise to 2.6 per cent in 2019 from 2.5 per cent in 2018.

This is a 0.2 percentage points lower than the April forecast. This edition of Africa’s Pulse includes special sections on accelerating poverty reduction and promoting women’s empowerment.

“Empowering women will help boost growth. African policy makers face an important choice-business as usual or deliberate steps toward a more inclusive economy,” says Hafez Ghanem, World Bank Vice President for Africa.

“After several years of slower-than-expected growth, closing the opportunity gap for women by removing barriers to their economic participation is the best way forward,”Ghanem adds.

Global …

While most African countries are bearing the brunt of the US-China trade war as well as a slump in commodity prices which is greatly affecting exporters, East Africa economies have remained resilient.

This is on the region’s economic diversity which is playing a key role in cushioning the region from shocks, the latest report from ICAEW – the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales – Economic Update: Africa Q3 2019 indicates.

The report provides GDP growth forecasts for various regions including East Africa which is set to grow by 6.3 per cent, West and Central Africa at 3.4 per cent, Franc Zone at 4.7 per cent and Southern Africa at 1.3 per cent.

The report, commissioned by ICAEW and produced by partner and forecaster Oxford Economics, outlines how East Africa’s growth is mainly driven by strong performances in the two major economies, Kenya and Ethiopia.

READ ALSO:How