Browsing: East Africa

Norfund, the Norwegian financial institution, an active strategic minority investor – wholly owned and funded by the Norwegian Government has unveiled its three-year strategy in East Africa. Norfund is a significant investor in the region, having been instrumental in realizing the Lake Turkana Wind Power Project and as a major investor in Equity Bank.

The fund’s new strategy incorporates scaling up investments in the manufacturing and agribusiness sectors, as well as a new investment pillar on green infrastructure, including waste management, access to clean water, transmission lines and power storage.

Norfund has been investing in East Africa for over 20 years with investments in clean energy constituting almost 40% of its portfolio in the region. Some of Norfund’s investments include projects such as Globeleq, Lake Turkana Wind Power, Bujagali Hydro Power and M-KOPA.

The new green infrastructure pillar which includes investments in waste management will complement Norfund’s existing investment focus …

FDI dropped by a third, to US$1.0 billion from US$1.5 billion in the three years between 2015 and 2018.…

Kenya’s low-cost carrier Jambojet on Monday made its first trip to Kigali International Airport as it launched scheduled flights between the Rwanda’s capital and Nairobi, bringing competition to RwandAir.

With the launch of once daily flights from its Jomo Kenyatta International Airport hub, Jambojet officially becomes the first low-cost carrier to fly the route.

READ ALSO:Jambojet cuts fares by 50 per cent in 72 hour sale offer

This now brings competition to RwandAir’s doorstep which also flies to Nairobi at least three times a day. It operates domestic and international services to East Africa, Central Africa, West Africa, Southern Africa, Europe the Middle East and Asia, from its main base at Kigali International Airport in Kigali.

READ ALSO:RwandAir eyes more presence in New Zealand and Australia

READ:Qatar Airways plans to buy shares from RwandAir

Jambojet which recently expanded their fleet with two brand new De Havilland Dash …

India’s national airline has re-launched commercial operations to Kenya’s capital Nairobi, making a return to the route it abandoned a decade ago.

Air lndia’s flight from Mumbai to Nairobi landed at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) on Wednesday with 100 passengers on board.

READ ALSO:KQ boosted by increased India flight deals

This marked the return of the airline to Kenya after 10 years.  It return is now seen a s a major boost for trade, investment and tourism activities between the two countries which have shared trade and economic ties for many years.

The airline will offer four direct flights a week-Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday with plans to offer additional flights in the pipeline, it said during the launch.

READ ALSO:Kenya woos India in agribusiness trade ties

According to tourism industry players, Air India will be instrumental in increasing uptake from both Tier I and II …

Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) Kenya has launched a prestigious product offering – the Standard Chartered Visa Infinite credit card.

The Standard Chartered Visa Infinite credit card, targets the affluent segment by offering a range of value added benefits, including best-in-class privileges.

Targeting high net-worth customers SCB Visa Infinite credit card, comes with unparalleled advantages and rewards.

“We are constantly working towards bringing to our clients the highest quality of services available on the global market. The launch of the Visa Infinite credit card shows our bank’s commitment to bringing payment solutions that meet and exceed the expectations of our ever-expanding clientele,” CEO Kariuki Ngari said on Wednesday.

“As a leading issuer of credit cards in Kenya, we continually look at ways of becoming more customer centric,” he added.

The new Standard Chartered Visa Infinite credit card is in-line with the bank’s strategy to consistently deliver premium services to its “valued …

Dubai’s non-oil trade with Africa will exceed AED 1 trillion for the period extending from 2011 until the end of 2019, according to Majid Saif Al Ghurair, Chairman of Dubai Chamber. The business leader noted that it had already reached AED926 billion in the 2011-2018 period.

H.E. Al Ghurair who was speaking at the fifth edition of the Global Business Forum Africa (GBF Africa) in Dubai as the two-day forum, asserting that the African continent is a key partner in Dubai’s plans to diversify its economy.

Organised by Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Dubai Chamber) under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

In his opening speech, H.E. Majid Saif Al Ghurair highlighted the long-established UAE-African relations in all fields, and Dubai’s status as Africa’s gateway to new markets building on its strong presence …

More than 66 per cent of total employment is Sub-Saharan Africa is from the informal sector, the International Labour Organization (ILO) has revealed, the biggest provider of employment in Africa.

Informal economies are typically characterised by low productivity and non-exportable goods and services.

READ ALSO:Sectors that will grow West Africa’s 15 economies

On the other hand, the sector also provides crucial livelihoods to the most vulnerable of the urban poor.

It is projected that the informal sector is likely to absorb many of the continent’s young employment seekers who are mainly today’s millennial digital natives – educated, learned and very adaptive to global trends.

READ ALSO:Industry Review: Jua Kali sector in East Africa

The Inter Region Economic Network (IREN) recently has held its 18^th Africa Resource Bank Forum in Nairobi in collaboration with the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom(FNF), under the theme: “The Future of Africa’s Informal …

Liquid has deployed a high-capacity fibre optic backbone connecting subsea cables on the East Coast of Africa with cables on the West Coast of Africa…

Five East Africa Community member countries have together amassed more than $100 billion in foreign and domestic debt, stretching their repayment budgets to the limit.

The rapid loans build-up has pushed East African countries close to a debt crisis, putting the region’s long-term economic stability at risk.

Kenya and Burundi have the highest loan distress profiles compared to other EAC countries with their debt -GDP ratios projected to exceed 60 per cent this year.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) considers a 50 per cent debt to GDP ratio to be within the tolerable limit for developing economies such as the EAC members.

In its latest Regional Economic Outlook report, IMF warned that some EAC countries are already facing increased foreign exchange and refinancing risks which he advised that it is important to enhance a debt management frameworks and transparency.

Kenya’s debt-to-GDP ratio is on its way to hit 61.6 per …

Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS), an Amazon.com company has announced  that it is launching an Amazon CloudFront Edge location in Kenya, which is expected to be operational in early 2020.

Amazon CloudFront is a highly secure and highly available Content Delivery Network (CDN) that accelerates the delivery of applications, data, and videos to users worldwide, with high transfer speeds.

READ ALSO:Kenya Space Agency intensifies use of science to curb drought

Kenya is the latest country to be connected to AWS’s global infrastructure network, which is designed and built to deliver the most flexible, reliable, scalable, and secure cloud computing environment with the highest quality network performance available today.

Customers across all industries in Kenya are benefitting from the flexibility, scalability, and security of the AWS cloud.

The improved and faster user experience, with local Amazon CloudFront infrastructure, will help in driving the development of even more web applications across …