Browsing: Kenya

Stanchart released the outlook for the EAC three big economies – Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.

According to the outlook report, the bank lowered Uganda growth forecasts to 6.0 per cent in 2020 and 6.2 per cent in 2021.

According to the report, although it is difficult to assess the full impact of the regional locust invasion, food prices have already been pressured due to flooding especially in eastern Uganda in December last year.

“We now expect the Bank of Uganda to keep its policy rate on hold at 9.0% throughout 2020 having previously seen scope for more easing,” said part of the report.

The report adds that they project the Bank Of Uganda (BoU) will adopt a tighter policy stand to control inflation given the 2021 elections and the rising caution over the extent of the government’s public financing requirement.
Stanchart’s chief economist for Africa and the Middle East, Razia …

Bic, the French manufacturer of pens has been running a programme among Kenyan schools that aims to strengthen the entrepreneurial skills of young minds and at the same time helping promote conservation spirits.

The BIC Education Challenge launched late last year as a partnership between BIC East Africa, the BIC Corporate Foundation, and Enactus Kenya. The challenge which focuses on fostering better learning conditions by promoting social entrepreneurship and innovation in education saw submissions from students from all over the country. Five shortlisted projects were invited to present in front of a panel of BIC experts at the BIC East Africa headquarters in Kasarani.

The competition is supported by Enactus, the world’s largest experiential learning platform dedicated to developing the next generation of entrepreneurial leaders and social innovators. The Enactus network of global business, academic, and student leaders are unified by their vision—to create a better, more sustainable world.

Various …

The visit by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to three African countries of Senegal, Angola, and Ethiopia is significant for the Trump administration not only as of the first trip the senior official has made to the continent, but a first for a senior official since the launch of the new strategy for Africa. The last time a senior official to visit sub-Sahara Africa was Pompeo’s predecessor, Rex Tillerson who lost his job while on a trip to Kenya.

Trump’s Africa Strategy was aimed at promoting prosperity, security, and stability in relations, and the business-friendly Prosper Africa which aims to substantially increase two-way trade and investment between the United States and Africa.

The leading issue will mainly be on security and counter-terrorism efforts mainly in the Sahel as well as the horn of Africa. Though Somalia has remained a point of discussion in terms of security, there is a …

Barclays Bank Kenya has successfully changed its name to Absa Bank Kenya marking an end to centuries of the domination of the banking sector by British banks. This follows the acquisition of Barclays Plc operations in Africa in 2017 by Absa Bank of South Africa in restructuring by the London-based lender.

These are some of the changes experienced in several countries across Africa as the Absa brand cements its presence in the continent, a market that was firmly held by Barclays brand for almost a century. Similar changes have happened in Ghana, Botswana, Seychelles and Tanzania.

With these changes, the bank is knocking doors in one of the biggest global lenders, the Multi Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) with an aim of creating a broader investment base for individual banks in several African countries.

Different Central Banks in the region require commercial banks to have a minimal investment base to enable …

Nigerian fintech start-up, Aella has raised a $10m debt financing round, from HQ Financial Group (HQF), Singapore-based private company specializing in new material science, semiconductor and blockchain financial investments.

This debt financing round is Aella’s second raise and will bolster the company’s commitment to serve the underbanked population in West Africa and other emerging markets. The FinTech is focused on improving financial inclusion for West Africa’s low-income segment.

Aella was founded in late 2015 by Akin Jones, CEO and Akanbi Wale, CTO in Lagos, Nigeria and has remained committed to building trustworthy credit for emerging markets with an initial focus on Nigeria and the Philippines, where the company is licensed to operate. Aella has made a visible impact on the lives of more than 300k borrowers across its Employer Backed and Direct to Consumer Verticals, who now have access to simple financial products.

For millions of poor and low-income households, …

Shanta Gold, the London Stock Exchange-listed gold miner with interests in southern Tanzania has announced plans to take over the gold prospecting activities in Kenya, formerly held by Barrick Gold.

The East Africa-focused gold producer announces that it has entered into a definitive agreement pursuant to which it will purchase 100% of the shares of Barrick’s subsidiary Acacia Exploration (Kenya) Ltd. from two subsidiaries of Barrick Gold Corporation.

The West Kenya license holds about 1.18 million ounces of gold with a grade of 12.6 grams per tonne (g/t believed to be one of the highest grading +1 Moz gold deposits in Africa. The project covers 1,161 sq km within the Lake Victoria greenstone gold field located in NW Tanzania and SW Kenya and home to Global Tier 1 assets including North Mara and Geita Gold Mine.

Eric Zurrin, Chief Executive Officer noted the acquisition of the Western Kenya project solidifies …

He was the world’s most eligible bachelor with tons of efforts being made to ensure his safety.  As fate would have it, Sudan, the last northern white rhino male died in March 2018 at his home in Ol Pajeta Conservatory in Kenya.

Semen was collected in 2014 when Sudan was over 40 years old.

What followed have been efforts by scientists to ensure there is a continuation of the white rhino generation. So far, two embryos have been passed on to females and a third one has just been released.

In August 2019 a team of scientists and conservationists broke new ground in saving the northern white rhinoceros from extinction when they harvested eggs from the two remaining females, artificially inseminated those using frozen sperm from deceased males and created two viable northern white rhino embryos.

With great support from the Kenyan Government and in the presence of Hon Najib …

In mid-January, US based financial whistleblower and research organization Hindenburg Research released a report titled’ The Phantom of the turn-around’ in which it questioned the operations of Opera, the Chinese owned browser whose popularity in Africa has remained high. What has followed is a series of class-action lawsuits by a dozen law firms in US and UK against the browser.

The research firm accused Opera of “developing predatory short-term loans in Africa and India, deploying deceptive ‘bait and switch’ tactics to lure in borrowers and charging egregious interest rates ranging from 365-876%.” This, the company says is going against Google policies of charging fair rates on short term loans.

According to financial firm Hindenburg Research, Opera has launched at least four payment apps under various developer accounts. There’s Okash and OPesa in Kenya, CashBean in India, and OPay in Nigeria.

It noted that Opera has scaled its “Fintech” segment from …

Cellulant Corporation – the pan-African technology company based in Kenya is known for developing revolutionary technologies to empower African commerce. Such a technology include blockchain-based Agrikore and Tingg, which are now being used across Africa as well as being imported to countries like Afghanistan.

These technologies have empowered Africa’s agriculture sector in the assurance to leverage on technology to help block inefficiency and wastages in Africa’s agricultural value chain courtesy of its improved payment and marketplace solutions, Tingg and Agrikore.

The Agriculture market in Africa, despite its $330billion size in 2015 and projected to grow to $1Trillion by 2030 is not organized. Agrikore provides this on its block-chain core. It makes this wealth addressable & accessible to all through a comprehensive system consisting of the technology, business processes, and operating models that deliver a systematic organization of the actors in Agriculture in a manner that is extremely de-risked and investable …

The East African Community (EAC) is regressing with Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania leading the pack.

It is gross discouragement to hardworking East Africans who are seeing their countries’ economies continue on a downward trend despite the much-hailed talk of GDP growth.

Coupled with unfavourable economic conditions globally, the EAC economies are degenerating, leading to chaotic disruptions of livelihoods of the majority poor.

Kenya’s debts, theft of public resources

Kenya is East Africa’s economic hub but with the goings-on lately, it seems like the centre is no longer holding.

A Gallup International annual End of Year Survey released in 2002 showed that Kenyans were the most optimistic people on earth and in 2019 the Global Optimism Outlook Survey found that 70 per cent of Kenyans viewed themselves as optimists.

This average was above the global standing at 56 per cent and continental Africa’s average of 64 per cent.

For a country …