Browsing: Kenya

Did you know, last year (2019) Africa spent more money servicing debts than the amount it spent on health issues of its public? This obviously a general statement, it does not mean that each and every country in Africa spent more on debt servicing that the money it allocated to its health center, but the fact holds true for most of Africa’s 53 countries.

It is not that Africa does not care about the health of its people, on the contrary, its just that, according to World Bank stats, Africa is home to the World’s highest number of heavily indebted poor countries owing a total of USD 493.6 billion in long term debts.

As the World Bank and International Monetary Fund issue funding aid to help support Africa respond to the effects of the COVID-19 global pandemic, many African countries including Tanzania and Rwanda have asked that the international community …

FurtherAfrica Insights – COVID19 series with Kenneth Njoroge from the Money Series Africa in Kenya.

A conversation about how the crisis is affecting one of the cornerstones of the Kenyan economy: Small and Medium companies. Kenneth gives his insights on how the government is handling the crisis and the opportunities arising as we prepare to come back to a new normal.…

The Tanzania Horticultural Association (Taha), is reporting an increase in revenue from the export of avocados which until now were not considered key export cash crop.

However growing demand in the US and Europe has seen the sub-sector increase revenue to USD 23 million annually.

Tanzania is the second largest producer of avocado fruit in Africa second only to Kenya. Over the past 5 years, avocado exports have frog leaped from 1,877 tonnes in 2014 to 9,000 tonnes in 2019 and were it not for the COVID-19 outbreak, this figure was expected to go only higher.

Kenya is already doing much better with its estimated annual output is about 190,000 tonnes every year as the country exports an average of 10,000 metric tonnes annually.

In Tanzania, there are about 10000 farmers of the crop who are spread out across the country and of these, now most have turned to the …

Pan African private equity company Convergence Partners has announced that it has acquired all the operations of telecommunication giant Vodacom Business Africa through its digital service provider platform, inq. Holdings Limited (formerly Synergy Communications) based in Mauritius.

Vodacom Business Africa is an enterprise-focused ICT subsidiary of the Vodacom Group. With over US$300mn of capital under management, Convergence Partners brings its skills, experience and capital to develop new investment opportunities as well as actively adding value to investments across the lifecycle of ICT assets.

The 100% acquisition of Vodacom Business Africa’s operations will be effected in Nigeria, Zambia and Cote d’Ivoire with a further planned acquisition in Cameroon pending regulatory approvals.

This transaction grows inq.’s regional footprint as a leading enterprise solutions provider to 13 cities in 7 countries across Africa including its existing operations in Botswana, Malawi and Mozambique.

Under the inq. banner the company will embark on the next …

Total Uganda has bought out the financial struggling Tullow Oil for a whopping USD575 million as the latter gears up to leave the East African market.

The buyout will be paid in part by a USD 500 million initial payment payable upon completion and another USD75 million payable when the project pact is finalized.

With completion of the sell, Total Uganda will now own Tullow’s assets on the humongous Lake Albert Development project and the even larger East African Crude Oil Pipeline project. Tullow, a British owned conglomerate has been struggling and the just inked Uganda buy out will help improve its liquidity.

The move is not due to the ongoing global coronivrus pandemic, it is rather a strategic plan that was on the table long before the pandemic begun. At the start of the year, the sale and purchase agreement had already been signed, well before the Covi-19 virus …

On Sunday, May 10th, statistics from the WorldOmeter showed that New York state had recorded 41 fatalities in 24 hours, down from a high of almost two thousand deaths in Mid April. This was a significant drop in deaths with total US fatalities dropping to below a thousand.

This is a similar drop being recorded all over the world with record low levels being recorded in European hotspots of Italy, France, Spain, and United Kingdown with figures almost going to double digits. It is expected that the effects of the disease might not be felt in a few months.

However, as global figures decline, the same can not be said of Africa which has since a significant rise, blatant disobeying containment measures, and rise of unscientific measures to curb the disease. According to Africa CDC, the AU backed entity, there are 63,293 confirmed cases spread across the continent with 2,290 …

“It’s getting better by the day,” said Minal Shah, who has two children that attend the Academy. “It took us a few days, in the beginning, to settle with the new routines and now it’s become a new way of learning for all of us.”

Most Academy parents have found that the best way they can help their child during online learning is to help them organise their time wisely, provide a good workspace and be there for them for moral support.

“We have been providing a quiet and conducive study location for our child,” said Colin Williams, a parent of an Academy student. “Lots of hugs and emotional support are also included, along with additional art supplies, books, and study materials. We’re also answering any questions our daughter may have and we help her with researching.”

With schools being shut, daily routines have become less structured. This has encouraged …

M-TIBA, the health financing technology platform based in Kenya and the Kenya Healthcare Federation (KHF) have announced a new SMS-based service to help the security agencies identify essential healthcare service workers in the country. This is in response to these workers facing travel restrictions during curfew hours and movements into or out of counties with restricted movements. Security personnel is also increasingly concerned about the authenticity of paper-based passes being used to identify essential service providers.

M-TIBA has developed a verification platform for security officers to check that people are healthcare workers providing essential services. They can do this by sending a free SMS with an ID number of the healthcare worker to 20253. They will receive a confirmation message from M-TIBA authenticating the ID – and vehicle registration details, when available.

This will help KHF members, who are providers of gazetted essential services, to carry on with their official …

The President of Tanzania, H.E. John Pombe Magufuli has raised a storm on the social media after questioning some of the tests conducted on Tanzanian patients, which he attributes to either poor workmanship in the National Referral Laboratory or faulty kits.

In a televised speech, the Tanzanian leader narrated how his security agents submitted different samples from domestic and wild animals as well as fruits and even natural oil, all disguised as human samples with queer results of goat, pawpaw and quail all returning positive for Covid-19.

Though this has become an online buzz, this has also raised critical questions on the validity of tests currently being used in Africa, mainly from China. There have been fears of the tests returning an invalid result painting a wrong picture of the pandemic.

African countries have been heavily relying on donated kits with Chinese billionaire Jack Ma sending in over one million …

Some of the PPEs Kijenzi is producing include face shields and other physical distancing aids like door openers.…