Browsing: East Africa

The European Union is one of Uganda’s major trading partners with annual trade balance books exceeding USD 1 billion every year.

However, more and more free trade pacts are been signed across Africa, opening ever more doors to new markets right within the country and this may upset the traditional foreign trade reliance.

For, now, international trade remains business as usual, why only last month, the EU announced that it is extending Uganda some USD97.5 million as grant financing to fund development projects in this financial year.

This latest grant pact further strengthens bilateral relations between the two even as EU investments in Uganda surpass the USD 2 billion mark per year.

To put icing on the cake, the Pearl of Africa is also expected to get foreign direct investments worth USD 733.3 million that EU firms, according to local media intend to invest over the course of the next …

Binary code is a series of 0’1 and 1’s and thanks to the digital revolution that has since unfolded, these series of 0’s and 1’s and is, in multiple digits, lifting Africa out of poverty.

Take Tanzania for instance, a low income East African nation that now has the capacity to increase its annual tax base by a whopping USD 477 million should it better regulate, promote and develop the digital money industry in the country.

Other than the financial gains that are all too obvious, using digital transactions allows for increased transparency in government payments and reduced bureaucratic inefficiencies across most all government ministries and agencies.

Tanzania ranks way up there in Africa’s digital money penetration. In just a handful of years, Tanzania’s mobile money penetration has been unprecedented. With it, “Tanzania is building a firm foundation for strong and inclusive growth and we look forward to further progress,” …

The deadly coronavirus has brought the World to a standstill, spread through touch, African financial institutions are now going cashless to beat the virus.

The exchange of money, in cash, risky further spread of the virus, an obvious solution is to go cashless, use digital payments only. However is Africa ready?

In the face of this global tragedy, Africa’s fast digital penetration seems to have come in the nick of time. Led by the telecom companies, Africa leads the globe in use of mobile transactions.

Even in the most remotest corners of the continent, peasant farmers, pastoralists herding cows, all can be found with a mobile phone registered for mobile money transactions. Even the smallest shops accept mobile money payment for even the smallest purchases. The only limitation has always been the expensive cost of the service, however that cost is irrelevant if the money is not withdrawn to cash.…

In just one year, Tanzania’s Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) has recovered close to USD 36 million (82.2bn/-) of embezzled public funds.

The funds were misappropriated during the 2018/19 financial year and the amount is actually USD 6million  (12.5bn/-) more than what was recovered last year.

That begs the question, were there more cases of embezzlement last year compared to the previous year? The authorities do not make that clear but they credit the recovery to increased efficiency of the bureau which they say is operating at a high efficiency rate of 82 percent.

Evidence to support the increased efficiency includes the increased number of project inspections by almost double the number of inspections that were conducted last year. The number of evaluated projects reached 1,106 up from only 691 that were conducted last year.

A total of 911 case were reviewed including 266 on alleged bribe cases …

The Tanzania Cigarette Company (TCC), the country’s main tobacco producer, is looking to expand its sells to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The DRC is already TCC’s largest export destination that has seen the company grow its 2019 gross profit earnings by 56 percent, more than double compared to the previous year.

Nonetheless, the tobacco company enjoyed marginal growth when it came to annual revenue which inched up slightly by 5.2 percent to clock 309.8bn/- up from 294.3bn/- the year before that.

TCC is not the only company eyeing the DRC for business, increasingly, Tanzanian banks are reported to be making venture moves into the DRC. However, until now, it is small businesses that were enjoying the huge market of the central African state.

Many small businesses have been transporting goods to the DRC for years and enjoying lucrative returns. TCC is only the latest of manufacturing titans to …

Kenya is the barometer for what is happening or likely to take root in East Africa since the country tends to set the pace on matters development.

When it comes to land prices in East Africa, Kenya tops the list of the most expensive land rivalling even properties in some affluent areas of Johannesburg, London and New York.

In the last quarter of 2019, land prices in Kenya continued on their upward trend with properties in the suburbs increasing by 1.69 per cent over the year while satellite towns saw prices increase by 6.93 over the same period.

African economies must diversify, value add for quick recovery

In a report by Hass Consult, Kitengela which is just an hour from Nairobi city centre saw the highest land price increase recording a 10.71 per cent hike while Ongata Rongai led on a quarterly basis at 4.56 per cent.

The plush Spring …

CRDB Bank, a leading bank in Tanzania, has announced plans to register its own insurance subsidiary firm.

The bank is currently already a broker and enjoying considerable premium back payments which almost double in the span of just 3 years (2016-2019).

In an interview with local media, CRDB’s Broker General Manager, Mr Arthur Mosha said in that short time, their premium levels is up from 44.2bn/- from 25bn/-

Not surprising, Tanzania’s insurance market grew by 8.6 percent in gross premiums over the course of the last financial year. As of 2018, Tanzania’s insurance industry had 31 insurance companies, 109 insurance brokers and 635 insurance agents.

For a country of 56 million people, the sector is hardly sufficiently serviced and there is enormous room for growth.

The bank’s brokage services target mainly their own customers who now represent 70 percent of all their insurance customers. At the moment, the leading products …

Trade between Tanzania and China has been adversely affected by the ongoing global coronavirus pandemic.

The turn for the worst between Sino-Tanzanian trade is only to be expected as movement of both goods and people is restricted the world over.

In a press release that was issued recently by the respective authorities, Tanzania’s Minister of Industries and Trade, Mr Innocent Bashungwa, told local press that trade volumes to and from the two countries has taken a significant blow.

Cargo flow between the two countries is now limited if not completely stopped and the picture is grim across the region. While it is estimated to cost both parties huge sums of money, neither the Tanzanian authorities nor the counterparts from the Chinese embassy have released any specific figures.

The closed borders owing to the coronavirus outbreak, is the direct cause of the dropped trade between the two nations. Until the outbreak, …

China’s influence in Africa has reached historical proportions and the US, coming rather late into the game, is now attempting to ‘change Chinese narrative’ on the continent.

The US is looking to move Africa from training or rather petting the dragon to slaying it, metaphorically speaking.

The new US-Africa policy that was launched in 2018, is designed for this purpose. As a top US diplomat put it, the policy “…will continue to counter China’s influence in Africa in order to slay the dragon.”

The US would have Africa and the World at large know, the continent is now getting “the attention it deserves from senior US officials.”

With the new policy, that is meant to guide bilateral relations with Africa, the US is trying to improve its public diplomacy outreach.

As China continues to assert itself on the continent with ever more development pacts, the US is now trying to …

A Zimbabwean public service officer, the former Chief Executive Officer of the Zimbabwe National Road Administration (Zinara) is allegedly involved in a graft cases that has cost the agency losses in excess of USD40 million.

Mr Frank Chitukutuku, the accused official, is facing  a list of economic sabotage cases all surrounding what local media is calling ‘dubious payments’ for supposed public works.  The list of irregularities is long, from payments for substandard work to over payment for projects without the agency’s board ever approving.

There are also issues of flouting tender procedures, hand-picking firms, payment for incomplete work and the bias awarding of projects in favour of companies that he has interest in or belonging to individuals in his favour.

Zimbabwe’s Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Transport and Infrastructural Development deliberated the matter in detail earlier this month and resolved to fire the CEO while legal proceedings are underway.

Among the …