Browsing: East Africa

Forbes recently. released a list of Africa’s top dollar musicians and here is the list in descending order.

1. Youssou N’Dour (Senegal) – Net worth $145

Youssou N’Dour, AKA Youssou Madjiguéne Ndour, is a Senegalese singer, songwriter, composer, occasional actor, businessman, and, wait for it, a politician too. Yes, Africa’s wealthiest musician is shooting for the executive office and is not the only one on the list with aspirations of becoming their country’s president.

Youssou owns the biggest media house in Senegal with radio and Tv stations. He also boasts vast investments in real estate.

1. Akon – net worth $80 million

World fames Akon is Africa’s second richest musician. Born Aliaume Damala Badara Akon Thiam, the US based star is also originally from Senegal. Akon who is also an actor and a businessman, has accumulated wealth from a diverse range of investments.

Akon writes songs and produces …

Tanzania set aside over 110 hectares for the construction of the Mtwara Free Port Zone over a decade ago (2009) but since then, only 10 hectares have been put to use. Now Tanzania’s parliament wants answers as to why the project is lagging behind.

Special Seats Member of Parliament (CCM) Anastasia Wambura raised the concern recently in the August House citing that the project was very promising yet little groundwork has actually been done.

Responding the Deputy Minister of Agriculture Hussein Bashe acknowledged the slow pace of investment in the Mtwara Free Port Zone but blamed it on the overall drop in global economies that have affected the oil (and gas) industry gravely.

However, as to the MP’s suggestion that the government reassign the remaining 100 hectares to some other economic activity, Minister Bashe who was addressing the House on behalf of the Minister of Industry and Trade, said the …

Tanzania has earned a record $3 billion from gold sales as price for the precious metal soars in the world market.

Publicized by the Bank of Tanzania, the value of gold exports clocked $3.025 billion in the year ending March 31, 2021, a considerable jump from $2.324 billion that was earned last year.

In fact, gold is doing so well that it has become the country’s top foreign exchange earner, and even overtaken tourism.

Gold prices have been edging up since the corona outbreak last year owing to jittery investors fearing a collapse of other currencies (including the dollar) and opting to store their value in gold.

“As financial markets were hit by the pandemic, investors rushed for gold which they consider as one of the safe haven assets,” report local media.

Consider this, gold represented more than half (55.9 percent) of the value brought home from sell of …

Within her first two months in the executive office. With Uganda, President Samia Suluhu Hassan and counterpart Yoweri Museveni inked an oil deal with Total and China’s CNOOC to start the construction of a $3.5 billion pipeline to export Ugandan crude oil to international markets.

Right after that, President Samia went on to Kenya where together with her Kenyan counterpart President Uhuru Kenyatta, she signed a pact to start working on a gas pipeline from Dar es Salaam to Mombasa.

In their subsequent speeches, the two leaders said the gas deal is part of a long-term project to share energy resources. Rebuilding wary diplomatic ties, Tanzania’s President Samia made it clear that the two countries will build more interconnecting infrastructure including roads and rail and that the gas pipeline was but a starting point.

“The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Cooperation in Natural Gas Transportation means the countries’ ministers …

For the longest time, Africa has been regarded as a hub of extraction, with a history of colonialism that resulted in colonialists exporting raw materials and labor from the continent at little or no fee at all. However, Africa is rewriting the pages of history, and taking charge of its economic well-being. 

No longer are African leaders basing their economies solely on the extractive industries, they are spreading their wings to different sectors that will benefit the continent’s economic status. To date, Africa has been said to be the second-fastest-growing economic region after Asia, and forecasts predict the momentum to be maintained as the continent has many factors working in its favor.

Although the continent’s economic status is on the rise, the rate at which different countries on the continent are growing economically is not at par. One country that has seen remarkable growth and is implementing economic policies that …

ECOWAS countries in West Africa have long reasoned that the issue of food security cannot be left to a single country to shoulder. Instead, the regional bloc embraced the fact it takes collective efforts to secure the food security of a single nation and in so doing protect the whole region.

In is address to member countries during the ongoing virtual meeting, the ECOWAS Commissioner for Agriculture, Environment and Water Resources, Sékou Sangaré said the regional goal of stockpiling some 40, 000 metric tonnes of food reserve is a visionary course that will protect each member state of the sub region.

The conference begun on April 28^th and will carry on through to May 10^th. The conference falls is part and parcel of the EU-funded Support Project to the West African Food Security Storage System.

The Food Security Storage System came into being back in 2015 and …

The government of Tanzania is working on a blue print to increase sell of the country’s agro-produce by setting up bonded warehouses in foreign markets in a bid to boost sells.

The bonded warehouses will for starters be piloted in China and Saudi Arabia and are expected to ease access to markets for agro-produce.

Well first things first. What is a bonded warehouse? These are building or other secured areas in which dutiable goods may be stored or even manufacturing without payment of duty.

Bonded warehouses provide specialized storage services such as deep freezers for perishables as well as bulk liquid storage. They also allow for commodity processing and make up an integral part of the global supply chain by giving the importer opportunity to bring in raw goods, process, package and then sell the final …

“The change of tone ushered in by President Samia Suluhu Hassan over the last month could indicate a welcome to a whole new economic direction in Tanzania’,” remarked Peter Leon, Partner and Africa Co-Chair, Herbert Smith Freehills

Investors have been wary of dipping their feet in Tanzania’s investment pool, more so investors in the extractive industries. In March 2017, a total ban on the export of unprocessed mineral concentrates and ores was instated.

Just four months later, in July 2017, after six days of deliberation, three new laws assented. The new laws gave significant power to the government, empowering it to control the extractives sector autonomously.

The three laws that were altered are:

• The Natural Wealth and Resources Contracts (Review and Renegotiation of Unconscionable Terms) Act, 2017 (Unconscionable Terms Act);
• The Natural Wealth and Resources (Permanent Sovereignty) Act, 2017 (Permanent Sovereignty Act); and
• The Written Laws(Miscellaneous Amendments) Act, 2017 which

The cost of living in East Africa has risen with the governments shifting the debt repayment burden to businesses and households by increasing taxes.

According to data from the national bureaus of statistics, in countries such as Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania, an increase in fuel prices as well as weaker local currencies has also contributed to the prices of essential commodities like milk, bread, groceries, oil and fruits.

According to the Bank of Tanzania (BOT), Monetary Policy Statement released early this year, inflation in 2020 was estimated at 5.2 per cent in the East African region which was within EAC convergence criteria of not more than eight percent but higher than 3.2 per cent in 2019.

In March, Uganda posted an increase in the overall monthly inflation which rose to 4.1 per cent from 4.1 per cent in February while Kenya also recorded an increase of 5.9 per cent …

When one of the World’s richest couples decides to divorce then yes we are all warrant to Tweet our P and Qs. So, as the social media world continues to dot the couples’ i’s and cross their t’s let as look at ‘the poor man’ in one of the World’s wealthiest people.

As of February this year, Bill Gates’ net worth of over $137 billion, keeping the world renown philanthropist right up their with the rest of the World’s richest people.

But that is not what makes Bill Gates standout, it is his willingness to aide the world’s poorest that sets him apart from the other World titans.

Only recently, through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, has set aside a $306 million package in agricultural development grants for Africa and other parts of the developing World.

Over the years, Bill Gates has invariably donated and granted Africa …