Browsing: Kenya

In a jammed conference room in a Nairobi hotel in early 2019, a panel of rights activists poked holes at the Kenyan oil exploration and mining activities in Turkana. Blow by blow, the team illustrated how Kenya stands to lose if radical measures are not put into place to ensure the resource benefits the country.

The Kenya Oil and Gas working group called for an audit of the contracts of oil mining to ensure they follow international standards. Charles Wanguhu, a social activist coordinator of the Kenya Civil Society Platform on Oil and Gas, said in international practice, if a company prospects and fails to find oil, it meets its costs.

However, if it finds oil, the country pays for the expenses. Therefore, Wanguhunotes that in the case of Kenya, the need for audit will ensure that the costs which Kenyans will pay for do not include those wells that …

4G Capital announced the completion of its second round of fundraising. The funding was secured by a $2 million debt from Ceniarth LLC, making the total raised to $4 million.

The company will use the investment for lending to its growing customer base of informal MSMEs across Uganda and Kenya.

Since the company was starred in 2013, 4G Capital has grown exponentially, lending over750, 000 loans valued at $90 million. In 2019, the company’s revenue increased by 97 per cent as 4G Capital supported over 60,000 MSMEs.

By the end of 2020, 4G Capital will have lent $43.6 million surpassing all expectations. Without refinancing, repayment rates remain above national averages at over 94 per cent.

Also Read: Mentors jostle for space in Kenya’s challenging SME sector

“The rapid expansion of mobile and technology-based financial services in emerging markets has the potential to provide critical capital to individuals previously excluded from …

Africa is one of the sunniest continents in the world, 85 percent of African land receives more than 2,000 kilowatt-hours of solar energy per square meter per year. Almost 70% of the population of African countries is located in the Sahara and the surrounding areas do not have access to the grid.

With the need to hook up to the grid, a new partnership is moving towards achieving more solar power for the industry. Kenyan industries are set to benefit by saving a minimum of 30% on their current cost grid consumption following a partnership between Distributed Power Africa (DPA) and Canadian Solar company. Currently, Kenyan companies lose nearly 10% of their production because of power outages and fluctuations.

The deal is expected to help DPA provide top tier PV panels from the company that is estimated to be over 60,000 KuMax and HiKu which would quite easily construct 50 …

At Kapiti research station, 70 Km south of Nairobi, scientists based at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and its Mazingira Centre – a-state-of-the-art environmental and education facility in East Africa is conducting essential climate observations. Collecting actual data on how the climate is changing in Kenya’s Savannahs has remained a challenge. Thus, the data available to show climate variations in East Africa has always needed validation.

The most commonly used method is use of satellite imagery which unfortunately lacks the ability to show actual data for a specific area spanning a couple of kilometers. This data captured by satellite, especially land surface temperature and greenhouse gas emissions might have a certain level of difference with that observed on the ground, commonly referred to as variance. Further, the use of satellite imagery and simulations are often not calibrated to the region where they are applied to and thus have an …

As Kenya’s SME sector grows through a tough economic time, mentors are increasingly targeting the sector to offer guidance to small businesses.

The latest entrant is Wylde International which has invested Sh50 million in a one-stop-shop entrepreneurs centre in Nairobi dubbed SNDBX.

SNDBX gives entrepreneurs and SMEs timely and personalised access to round the clock business growth experts to help face challenges they are experiencing.

The centre is an all-access pass to more than 20 experts including finance, human resources, tax, legal, branding, marketing, debt collection, innovation, governance and risk management among others.

Speaking during the launch, Wylde International Chief Executive Joram Mwinamo, said the move was necessitated by the need in the market to help entrepreneurs scale up.

“An environment where ambitious entrepreneurs have a supporting cast of seasoned professionals. The SNDBX is a First of its kind in the world, developed over 10 years of working with entrepreneurs, …

Kenya is pursuing a new trade deal with the United States, a deal that was announced earlier in February during President Uhuru Kenyatta’s visit to Washington DC. To set the stage for the new deal, US department of agriculture USDA has announced that Kenya will start receiving wheat from Idaho, Oregon and Washington states after the states addressed plan health concerns.

Kenya has lifted the trade barrier to allow U.S. wheat growers in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) access to Kenya’s wheat market for the first time in over a decade after the U.S.- Kenya Trade and Investment Working Group adopted a phytosanitary protocol.

Effective immediately, U.S. wheat may now be shipped to Kenya, regardless of the state of origin or port of export, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue announced.  For the last 12 years, USDA’s Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has worked closely with Kenyan officials to address plant …

The Senegalese capital of Dakar is hosting Africa Day 2020 with the European Investment Bank (EIB) and UN-Habitat presenting various opportunities for investors, with an aim of increasing levels of investment in the housing and habitat in the continent.

Africa Day gathers participants from Africa, Europe, and others parts of the world to debate the challenges and solutions for the continent in development, digitalization, sustainability, jobs for young people and many other areas. “Cities for people” is the main topic at EIB Africa Day conference.

More than 400 government ministers, business leaders, academics and civil society representatives, as well as mayors from across Africa, are sharing sustainable urban development best practice, confirm new investment across the continent and visit high impact projects financed by the EIB.

High-level speakers, from Africa and Europe, will attend Africa Day 2020 to share their experiences and expertise. EIB President Werner Hoyer, EIB Vice-President Ambroise …

South Sudan’s handshake’ has been welcomed by economists who say the deal resonates with the demands of the economy, which according to the World Bank and IMF, expects it to be one of the fastest-growing in the continent.

Last week, a new government of national unity was unveiled with Dr. Riek Machar joining the government as a vice president ending six years of civil war that has killed about 400,000 people and displaced millions. The war has also led to massive looting and wastage of oil and the proceeds of the natural resource leaving the country impoverished.

According to the World Bank, Africa’s top performers in 2020 will be led by South Sudan (8.2%). This coupled with the new peace agreement is expected to overturn the negative tide the country has faced in the last few years.GDP Annual Growth Rate in South Sudan averaged -3.46 percent from 2009 until 2018, …

Corporate Council on Africa (CCA) in partnership with Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA) hosted a discussion with Kenyan and U.S. business leaders and government officials on the benefits that will arise from a Kenya-U.S. Free Trade Agreement

The round table discussion explored how the private sector can support this bilateral effort and take full advantage of investment and trade opportunities that will come from a Kenya-U.S. Free Trade Agreement.

This comes as a follow up to the recent visit of H.E. President Kenyatta to the United States, where both states announced the launch of talks aimed at establishing a free trade agreement (FTA) between the two countries.

If the plans succeed, it will be the first the United States FTA with a sub-Saharan African nation.

To enhance its trade and investment relationship with other African countries, the U.S might use the same model.
President and CEO of the Corporate Council …

Returning from a global legal onslaught, Chinese owned Opera has moved on to solidify its hold of Africa with the installation of new servers in Mombasa which it says makes browsing four times faster.

The browser with more than 350 million monthly active users has faced legal tackles mainly from US and Europe on how it handles app-based loans. Google play also announced that it will take measures against the company based on how it runs Okash, an online money lending app.

Opera has announced the successful installation of its new local servers in Mombasa, Kenya, through iColo.io MBA1 data center facility which has helped increase the browsing speed significantly. The company said its new server was saving a total of 4400 hours of time waiting for webpages to load.

These servers significantly increase browsing speed up to four times faster than before, meaning that millions of Kenyans who …