Browsing: Africa

Bolt, the leading European on-demand transportation platform has launched ‘Bolt for Business’, a plan that allows companies to manage and pay for all corporate trips from one central location.

On the new Bolt for Business portal, account managers can set up company-wide rules and control when and who can use business trips, making it simple to budget for and get a clear overview of the company’s transportation expenses.

The platform also enables the corporate to set and customise the spending allowances and the number of trips employees can take. It is also possible to require employees to report the purpose of the trip before the ride. The new system can be used on both desktop and mobile.

Olaoluwa Akinussi, Country Manager, Bolt Kenya said: “A growing number of Bolt trips are taken for business purposes, whether it’s commuting to work, rushing to client meetings or getting to the airport. Most …

By 2035, Africa which has one of the youngest populations in the world will have the largest workforce in the world.…

French electric  utility multinational—ENGIE (www.Engie-Africa.com) has been selected for the operation and maintenance of the Orange Services Group’s data center in Abidjan, for a five-year contract that will start early June 2019.

This data center of the latest generation, built by the Orange Service Group (GOS), is one of the few data centers existing in West Africa complying with the Level IV classification.

READ:How Dimension Data and SAP will roll out Intelligent enterprise solutions in East Africa

According to the classification, it has the required redundancies to ensure continuity of service in all circumstances. It received the award of Best Data Center from Africa at the 2017 “Data cloud Congress” in Monaco.

The perimeter of the contract includes preventive maintenance of the multi-technical lots of the data center buildings, including the electrical substations, high voltage, cooling and air conditioning, Central Management Technology, fire alarm systems, security and …

NIC Bank Kenya has signed a Loan Portfolio Guarantee agreement amounting to Ksh 515,900,000  (USD5.1 million) with the African Guarantee Fund for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs).

The partnership aims to unlock financing intended to facilitate the promotion, growth and development of SMEs in Kenya.

This comes in the wake of a continued credit crunch in the market, occasioned by the interest rate cap law in the country.

Since the law came into place in 2016, banks have been lending more to the government, shunning the private sector and individuals whom they term ‘high risk borrowers’.

READ:Why high risk borrowers , SMEs in Kenya could get easy loans

Speaking during the partnership launch, AGF Group Deputy CEO Jules Ngankam noted that the objective is to provide partial credit guarantees and capacity development to NIC Bank to stimulate financing of SMEs, thereby unlocking their potential to deliver exclusive growth in …

The East and Southern Africa Breeding Network (ESABN) on 4^th May, 2018 launched the accelerated genetic gain in rice (AGGRI) project aiming at the empowering women involved in rice value chain in the region.

The launch of the project was on the sideline of the just- concluded three-day 11^th East and Southern Africa Breeding Network meeting held in Dar es Salaam.

Speaking soon after launching the initiative, representative of International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) for Eastern and Southern Africa, Abdelbagi Ismail said that the beneficiaries will be unified by a set of standards developed to make breeding decisions consistent with the demand of regional farmers, consumers and processors.

Funded by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), the Initiative is also aimed at expanding International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) `s variety testing network into a globally aligned, modernized, rice breeding `community of practice`

In another development, IRRI`s targets …

How Kenya is banning gambling advertising

The Kenyan government has banned outdoor advertisement of gambling as it moves to introduce a raft of new measures to tame growing addiction and expansion of the lucrative multi-billion industry, which has found a strong foothold in Africa.

Advertisement of gambling on all social media platforms has also been banned in Kenya, dealing a blow to gambling firms which have been spending billion—cumulative—on adverts to lure millions into their businesses.

In a notice to betting, lotteries and public gaming license holders dated April 30, the Betting Control and Licensing Board (BCLB) has also banned adverts between 6am and 10pm, which means all adverts on television and radio will run during watershed hours(after 10pm), a move it says is intended to protect consumers from effects of gambling.

“We wish to remind you that gaming is a demerit good and all demerit goods have the potential …

Fuel, personnel and cost of aircraft remain top drivers of the airline’s costs

Kenya’s national carrier-Kenya Airways has posted a Ksh7.558 billion (USD74.6 million ) net loss for the year ended December 2018, as higher operating costs continue to eat into its improving revenues.

The airline which has changed its reporting period (end year) from March 31 to December 31, had a Ksh6.418 billion (USD63.5 million) loss in the 9-month period between April 1, and Dec 31, 2017.

This is despite the airline’s growth in total revenue for the 12 months which increased to Ksh114.45 billion (USD1.13 billion), compared to Ksh80.79 billion (USD789.7 million) for the nine month period ended December 31, 2017.

According to the management, fuel, personnel and the cost of aircraft remain the top three drivers of the airline’s costs, contributing to about two thirds of total operating costs.

“Fuel price volatility remains a major challenge for …

It has been by AviaDev event, in conjunction with partners, MIDAS Aviation and Futureneers Advisors, that the estimated potential revenue from new African aviation routes could yield $29 billion in direct revenue.

This revenue, which is more than the individual GDP’s of 70% of the countries in Africa, could be realized if the largest airports in each African country are connected with one another. Currently, only 33.7% of this huge market is served, meaning that there is over $19 billion in untapped annual revenue.

Now in its fourth year, AviaDev, brings together airports, airlines, tourism bodies, and suppliers and customizes one-to-one meetings so that new partnerships and routes can be created. AviaDev’s managing director, Jon Howell, unveiled the event’s mission: to connect the largest airports in each African country with one another. He stated: “AviaDev aims to challenge the status quo through encouraging disruptive thinking. We believe our new mission …

That will be decided during the forthcoming African Union meeting slated to take place in the next three months, according to the officials who gathered in Arusha on Thursday 25^th April, 2019.

The proposed African Continental Free Trade Area is not simply a `Free Trade Agreement` it is about establishing a unified continental market with 1.2 billion potential customers and where the private sector is the major engine to make it happen.

This was the tone from the discussions of the meeting held in Arusha about how the East African Private Sector including Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) could benefit from the African Continental Free Trading Area (AfCFTA)

The one-day meeting, organized jointly by the East African Business Council (EABC) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), convened close to 40 key players from the region`s private sector. The office for Eastern Africa of ECA estimates large …

China dominates as Kenya’s top import source globally 

Uganda is Kenya’s biggest trading partner within the East Africa Community (EAC), latest data show, with China dominating the global scene.

The Economic survey (2019) shows total trade volumes (import and exports) between Kenya and Uganda in the year 2018, were valued at Ksh111.3 billion (USD1.09 billion).

Tanzania comes in a distant second with a total trade value of Ksh47.6 billion (USD468.9 million) while Rwanda is third with Ksh19 billion (USD187.2 million).

Trade with DR Congo, South Sudan and Burundi, mainly export markets for Kenya, were valued at Ksh15.2 billion (USD149.6 million), Ksh12.9 billion (USD127.1 million) and Ksh6.6 billion (USD65.02 million) respectively.

Uganda

During the year under review, Uganda increased the value of its exports to Kenya by 17.6 per cent to close at Ksh49.4 billion (USD486.7 million), from Ksh42 billion (USD413.8 million) in 2017.

READ:Uganda keen on enhancing exports to