Browsing: East Africa

• Save the Children has found that about 262,500 acutely malnourished children may have died between January and November 2021
• The organization used data compiled by the UN and evaluated mortality rates for untreated cases of severe acute malnutrition in children under five across eight countries in East Africa
• Health centre admissions of children suffering acute malnutrition have risen dramatically in 2021, with a 16 per cent increase in the first half of this year from an already high baseline

A new report has found that more than 260,000 children aged under five may have died from extreme hunger or related diseases in East Africa since the start of the year.

Save the Children used data compiled by the UN and evaluated mortality rates for untreated cases of severe acute malnutrition in children under five across eight countries in East Africa.

Using a conservative estimate, the humanitarian aid agency discovered that …

The government of Tanzania has received 1.3tri/- as Covid-19 relief package from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Now the government has announced plans to implement a score of projects that will be financed with this fund in a move it says, will help the private sector’s liquidity.

As part of its own fiscal policies to cushion the economy from the negative effects of the global pandemic, the government, through the Central Bank has also released another 1tri/- to commercial banks in a bid to increase their lending capacity.

With these funds, the Central Bank released funding and IMF funding that goes into implementing national projects, the private sector is empowered to borrow and win project tenders and as such increase money circulation in the economy.

The strategy is meant to back the economy which had slowed down due to reduced demand which in turn reduced produced production stagnating the whole …

The Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA) (https://bit.ly/39fnc7x) has announced a $1 million grant to support the government of Kenya to create a Super Energy Service Company (ESCO). The Super ESCO, to be run by the Kenya Power and Lighting Company, will develop and implement energy efficiency projects for both the public and private sectors.

Super ESCOs are vehicles for channeling funds into public sector energy efficiency investments such as hospitals, schools, and street lighting, laying the foundation for private investment later in the commercial and industrial sectors.

The SEFA grant will support the training of a dedicated team within the Kenya Power and Lighting Company’s Institute of Energy Studies and Research to operate as a Super ESCO, in addition, to support for private ESCOs in Kenya to develop their Energy Performance Contract services.

“The Kenya Power and Lighting Company Super ESCO will allow Kenya to not only …

Four critical universities best practices for fostering graduate employability are of interest: Industry partnerships, Aligning university education with a country’s development plans, Regular university curriculum reviews, and Strengthening quality assurance systems.

However, while Universities work to better prepare graduates for the workforce, it is imperative for the government and the private sector to step in and increase the employability of graduates who are already in the workforce.…

Looking at the bigger picture, speculations are that the milk and milk product levies and taxes are designed to lure Uganda to choose favourably towards other trade issues that are pending.

As local Ugandan media puts it; “Uganda maintains that if there are issues that need to be addressed, they can be handled through bilateral arrangements or the regional trade agreements within the East African Community instead of using arbitrary means such as high taxes.”

Squeezing Uganda to act in its favour, Kenya has also imposed what Uganda is terming ‘a restriction to Ugandan diary products since January 2020.’ Notably, Kenya is Uganda’s largest milk trading partner in the region, yet for over an year now, Kenya has maintained restrictions on Ugandan milk products despite the East African Community (EAC) common market protocol.…

The next step in harmonizing policies and operating modules, is the need centralizing the related revenue administration and collection, because; “When we harmonize our tax administration we shall not compete with each other as EAC member states,” the sector experts reasoned.

There is also the matter of Visa fees which gravely affect the ability of traders to move between countries. It is now expected that the Republics of South Sudan, Uganda, and Kenya will expedite the removal of visa fees while the rest of the EAC partner states still need to remove what was described as ‘discriminatory fees, levies, and charges’ that hinder trade and persons movement across borders.…

While others are still trying to wrap their heads around blockchains and the safety of cryptos, Africa is embracing this digital currency with both hands. So much that in Kenya, you can even buy your groceries and I mean vegetables with cryptocurrencies.

That’s right, and this is not only in urban centres like the bustling capital of Nairobi, no, no, no, but it is also in the villages, upcountry. Peasants on the Coastal towns are trading in cryptos, buying and selling. Here we are not talking of mining cryptos only but rather using the digital currency for normal day to day trade, like Is said to buy supplies.

The way it works is, the cryptocurrency, a famous one in Kenya is coined Sarafu, which has now become an accepted medium of transfer such that one can use Sarafu to trade for goods and services.

Sarafu and others like it are …

Even though East Africa’s two economic giants Kenya and Tanzania are seen as business rivals, the two conduct enormous trade between each other and least of all not been the trade of the staple, corn.

According to the UN COMTRADE database on international trade, Kenya exports to Tanzania clocked USD 294.94 last year (2020). In fact, Tanzania has now bypassed Uganda to become Kenya’s largest export market in East Africa.

Reports show that the US imported goods from Kenya worth $41.8 million in June this year and guess which country comes next, Tanzania recording an amazing $31.6 million of Kenyan imports followed by Uganda at  US$28.3 million.

Reciprocating the deal, Kenya is now accepting Tanzania’s maize into the country after a long period standoff where Kenya had banned the import of Tanzanian corn. Kenya placed a ban on Tanzanian maize for alleged contamination of  Mycotoxins.

Mycotoxins are poisonous compounds produced …

On the bright side, even with the credit growth slowdown, it remained positive, growth still maintained and upward trajectory. This is also for both domestic credit extended to the private sector as well as the central government too.

Growth is expected to improve as the global economy normalizes over time but meanwhile, the government, through the central bank is instituting measures to increase liquidity and reduce lending rates, which in turn is expected to allow the private sector to have increased access to credit.

As part of these fiscal measures, the BoT has already issued TShs1 trillion to commercial lenders to help beef up their lending capacity and to do so at lower interest rates. This in turn is meant to encourage the private sector to borrow and increase production.…