Browsing: Kenya

Smile Train Vice President and Regional Director for Africa Dr. Esther Njoroge-Muriithi has been selected to serve as an Advisory Group Member for the Civil Society Engagement Mechanism (CSEM) for UHC2030.

Dr. Njoroge-Muriithi has represented Smile Train on several Civil Society Organization (CSO) platforms and events including the G4 Alliance, CORE Group and UNGA73 side events advocating for Universal Health Coverage (UHC).

The CSEM is a growing global civil society movement with over 1000 members from more than 850 organizations in 100+ countries. Membership in the CSEM is open to all civil society representatives advancing health, financing and governance agendas that relate to achieving UHC.

As a member of the Advisory Group, she will help strengthen a broad and inclusive UHC movement, which aims to influence policy design and implementation and facilitate citizen-led accountability. Her voice will join other strong CSO voices to contribute significantly to UHC2030, ensuring systematic attention …

Chubb, the world’s largest publicly traded property and casualty insurance company has made a $10 million equity investment in the Kenyan based African Trade Insurance Agency (ATI). Chubb is the first global property and casualty insurance company to become a shareholder in Africa’s leading multilateral political risk and credit insurer.

Chubb has operations in 54 countries and territories. The company, which is AA rated by Standard & Poor’s, is a leading underwriter of political risk insurance and reinsurance through two of its businesses, Sovereign Risk, a specialty underwriter based in Bermuda, and Chubb Global Markets, its London market division.

ATI supports trade and investment in African member states by providing comprehensive risk solutions, such as political risk and credit insurance products. Headquartered in Nairobi, ATI is Africa’s leading multilateral political risk and credit insurer (rated A/Stable S&P and A3/Stable Moody’s).

ATI currently counts 16 African nations and 10 …

Serena Hotels and Resort, a leading global hospitality brands with prominence in East Africa has partnered with a Forbes feted travel-tech company INTELITY to launch a mobile app to promote easy bookings.

The upscale hospitality brand, best known for its unique collection of luxury hotels, resorts, and safari lodges within East Africa, Mozambique, and Asia, will partner with INTELITY to build a custom, richly branded mobile experience for their guests.

Serena Hotels’ new brand app will enable guests to book and manage reservations, check-in (and out), and download a mobile room key directly to their smartphone. Additionally, the app will support service requests, mobile dining orders, messaging with staff, and local and property information, while easy access to amenities will simplify the booking process for spa, dining, and tours. From an operations perspective, INTELITY’s staff-facing dashboard collects and streamlines workflows, tracks all activity, and offers real-time operational insights with built-in …

The East African Community has for long earmarked the linking of partner countries through roads. One of this link is the link road that connects the coastal towns of Mombasa and Tanga, touching the lives of thousands of commuters and transporting goods and services worth millions.

Recently, the EAC announced that it has increased its funding for key projects from various donors among the Africa Development Bank (AfDB), which has now approved this project.

The Bank’s support for the Mombasa-Lunga Lunga/Horohoro and Tanga-Pangani-Bagamoyo roads Phase I, is in the form of African Development Bank and African Development Fund loans and represents 78.5% of the total €399.7 million project cost.  The European Union contributed a grant of €30 million, 7.7% of the total project cost, to the government of Kenya.

The road is a key component of the East African transport corridors network, connecting Kenya and Tanzania. Producers, manufacturers and traders …

M-KOPA, the Kenyan pay-as-you-go solar company has this week completed the rollout in Kenya of its new fridges to all 65 its retail outlets. It is available as part of the company’s M-KOPA MK6500 system, with daily payments of only KSh 165.

This ground-breaking 100L fridge was developed specifically for Africa in partnership with   Embraco Nidec, a global cooling brand and part of Nidec Global Appliance. It won the Unit Cost Affordability Prize in the 2019 Global Leap Awards for off-grid appliances.

The Younma-branded fridge features Embraco’s innovative DC compressor, which provides lower starting power and greater energy efficiency, compared to a traditional model. It was developed with support from Shell Foundation in partnership with UKAID and USAID.

M-KOPA Customer, Esther Mutua says “Before I got the fridge, I was selling one [drinks] crate per week, but now, because I have a fridge, I sell two or three more crates …

Kenya is expected to host several leaders of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) during the 9^th ACP Summit of Heads of State and Government. The Summit is themed “A Transformed ACP: Committed to Multilateralism” and will be preceded by Ministerial Sessions from 6 to 8 December at the same venue.

The Summit comes at a time when ACP Group prepares to finalize the Post-Cotonou negotiations as well as the revision to its Constitutive Act, the Georgetown Agreement. At the 110^th Session of the ACP Council of Ministers which will precede the Summit, Ministers will appoint the next Secretary-General for the term 2020 to 2025. The tenure of the current Senior Management Team expires on 28 February 2020.

The African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP) is an organization created by the Georgetown Agreement in 1975 and brings together Africa, Pacific islands and Caribbean countries into one …

Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta has underscored the need for East African Community member states and the wider region to nurture peace and unity, saying colonial boundaries should not divide people.

The President said the region stands to achieve faster development if its people work together in peace and harmony.

READ ALSO:EAC countries rank among world’s rising stars of global trade

“We need to live together as brothers and sisters and respect all communities in the region,” the President said.

The President was speaking at State House, Nairobi, during a meeting with King Abdile Wabar Abdi, the Ethiopian-based traditional leader of the Degodia community found in Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia and Djibouti.

King Abdi, who was accompanied by a huge delegation of members of the Degodia community from Kenya and Ethiopia, delivered a message of peace and unity to the President.

President Kenyatta said cultural diplomacy should be used as a …

The East African Community has marked its 20^th Anniversary with pomp and fanfare at its Headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania.

This comes as the community mulls over the inclusion of The Democratic Republic of Congo into the community, which would not only give the community a major population rise but also a coast to coast linking both the East African coast and the West African coast. Though the considerations are yet to be approved, policy analysts believe this move is a matter of when not if. However, there is still contention on whether to include the East most country, Somalia which has also expressed interest.

Uganda’s 2^nd Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for EAC Affairs, Hon. Dr. Ali Kirunda Kivejinja, who presided over the anniversary celebration, said that EAC Partner States would not repeat the mistake of the past that led to the collapse of the first Community.

Dr. …

Never in the history of the East African community has there been more funding than now, with the current funding for various social and infrastructural projects reaching US$3 Billion. Most of these funds have gone into inter-states projects as well as projects within a state having a regional impact.

The community has been able to achieve a tenfold increase in grants while still reducing internal expenses and costs by over 40 percent in the last four years.

Documents at our hands show that the EAC has been able to sign projects with different development agencies including Africa Development Bank, USAID, China, EU and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation worth $547,454, 168.

These documents seem to agree with Amb Libérat Mfumukeko who has been pushing for an effective secretariat that is able to raise financing on key projects while at the same time cutting on costs. This, he has argued in …

Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) Kenya has launched a prestigious product offering – the Standard Chartered Visa Infinite credit card.

The Standard Chartered Visa Infinite credit card, targets the affluent segment by offering a range of value added benefits, including best-in-class privileges.

Targeting high net-worth customers SCB Visa Infinite credit card, comes with unparalleled advantages and rewards.

“We are constantly working towards bringing to our clients the highest quality of services available on the global market. The launch of the Visa Infinite credit card shows our bank’s commitment to bringing payment solutions that meet and exceed the expectations of our ever-expanding clientele,” CEO Kariuki Ngari said on Wednesday.

“As a leading issuer of credit cards in Kenya, we continually look at ways of becoming more customer centric,” he added.

The new Standard Chartered Visa Infinite credit card is in-line with the bank’s strategy to consistently deliver premium services to its “valued …