Browsing: Kenya

Grassroots Business Fund strengthens Africa operations 

The Grassroots Business Fund (GBF), a global impact organization that utilizes the power of blended capital to invest in traditionally under-financed businesses, has announced the spin-off of its Latin America team into a new fully-fledged unit operating as Andes Impact Partners – AIP with its headquarters in Lima, Peru and is planning on expanding its African operations from Nairobi.   


AIP launched APF-I in November 2020 with an initial focus on Peru and Colombia and a possibility to expand to other markets in the region. The fund targets inclusive businesses which incorporate underserved, vulnerable or low-income communities in their supply chains, helping to improve incomes and the quality of life of these communities. Target businesses must be committed to gender equity and to promoting equal opportunities. 

Kimani Chege Trends

The East African region is primarily agricultural-based with the sector contributing an average of two-thirds of GDP and providing jobs to the majority of citizens. It is a key tax earner for governments and serves as a solid base under which the region’s industries are based. Agribusiness contributes about 25 per cent of Africa’s GDP and a staggering 70 percent of its employment.

Global food demand is expected to increase by somewhere between 59 percent and 98 percent by 2050 as the world population reaches an estimated 9.7 billion.

Most of the region’s countries have an ideal climatic condition for agriculture and mainly rely on rain-fed agriculture. Kenya, the most developed economy in the region which interestingly has a diversified economy more than just agriculture is least endowed in rain-fed agriculture compared to Tanzania, Rwanda, and Uganda.

Investors wary of e-waste from East African off grid systems

According to the Global E-Waste Monitor Report, in 2019 the world generated 53.6 million metric tonnes (Mt) of electronic waste (e-waste), and only 17.4 per cent was recycled through appropriate channels. Africa in particular lacks formal governance to support e-waste management.

Households in Africa generated 2.9 Mt of e-waste in 2019, of which only 0.9 per cent was reported to be collected and recycled by the formal sector. Discarded equipment such as phones, laptops, fridges, sensors and televisions contain substances that pose serious environmental and public health risks, particularly if treated inadequately.

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Looks like Kenya is in for a tough run in the coming financial year or maybe even for a longer span. Kenya needs to borrow to meet its budgetary needs. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is willing to lend but wants structural and governance reforms for Kenyan state-owned enterprises. How did Kenya get into this tough spot? Officials blame it on Covid-19 and the global slowed-down economy that resulted from the pandemic. Granted, economies took a hit from the pandemic but despite that fact in mind, reason still begs to understand what of the IMF loans that were issued specifically to help countries muzzle down the negative effects of the pandemic?

Notably, at the onset of the pandemic in March 2020, Kenya received a whopping $739 million loan from the IMF. The money was specifically meant to help cushion the Kenyan economy from the adverse effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. Now the IMF says Kenya is being lax.