Browsing: Kenya

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 …

Kenya has become one of the latest countries to strengthen the fight on tax evasion and profit shifting with signing of a tax treaty, in the wake of rising malpractices by global multi-nationals.

The national efforts to strengthen the country’s bilateral tax treaties, have received a boost with the signing of a multilateral convention to end tax avoidance in France.

This week, the country signed the Multilateral Convention to Implement Tax Treaty Related Measures to Prevent Base Erosion and Profit Shifting Convention at the 10th Anniversary Meeting of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes (the Global Forum) in Paris.

The Convention is the first multilateral treaty of its kind, allowing international collaboration initiatives to end tax avoidance among multinational firms under the OECD/G20 BEPS Project.

READ ALSO:Kenya’s tax evaders put on notice by President Kenyatta

The OECD/G20 BEPS Project delivers solutions for governments …

Trade and investment between Kenya and the United Arab Emirates is set for a major boost after chambers of commerce from the two countries reached a new agreement.

The Sharjah Chamber of Commerce & Industry and Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry have signed an MoU to open a satellite trade office in the United Arab Emirates.

READ ALSO:Kenya seeks mineral market in the United Arabs Emirates

The agreement will enable and provide strategic bilateral cooperation between the business communities in Kenya and UAE with an objective to foster cooperation in trade, investment, joint activities, information and services and trade policy support programmes.

The agreement was announced at the UAE-Kenya Trade and Investment Forum where Kenya hosted a delegation of over 20 top companies from the United Arab Emirates.

READ ALSO:UAE tightens its grip over Zanzibar

The Forum organized by Sharjah Chamber of Commerce & Industry and …

A high-level meeting of policymakers, regulators and industry experts in the field of pharmaceuticals and trade has discussed a bold path towards affordable pharmaceuticals through leveraging the African Continental Free Trade Area.  The Continent is home to 11% of the world’s population yet it carries 25% of the world’s burden of disease.

If implemented, pooling procurement of essential drugs and products and expanding local pharmaceutical production on the continent is seen as a critical pathway to the prosperity of African citizens, thereby achieving universal healthcare in Africa.

Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa Vera Songwe told the meeting that 50 % of all children who die before the age of 5 in the world are in Africa. “We cannot build a prosperous Africa if we have such a high mortality rate. The pharma initiative seeks to reduce costs and increase healthcare access.”

“The tragedy is that these diseases …

OPay, one of the fastest scaling growth companies in Africa, has announced that it raised $120 million of series B funding, less than 6 months after it announced its last funding round of $50 million in June.

The company, which was incubated by Norwegian based, global consumer Internet company Opera, is already Nigeria’s leading mobile wallet and motorbike ridesharing provider, and is rapidly expanding.

Series B investors included Meituan-Dianping, DragonBall Capital (The Investment fund backed by Meituan-Dianping), GaoRong Capital, Source Code Capital, SoftBank Ventures Asia, Bertelsmann Asia Investments (BAI), Redpoint China, IDG Capital, Sequoia Capital China and GSR Ventures.

OPay is one of the fastest growing companies in Nigeria, providing consumers with a wide range of services including mobile payments and transfers, ridesharing and food delivery. The company plans to use the new capital to further accelerate its expansion across its multiple verticals, as well as entering new African markets.…

This year’s edition of the Erasmus+ study in Europe Fair, was hosted at the University of Nairobi, Great Court Square, serving as a great platform for students to learn of the opportunities available to them to study, work and live in a European country.

Erasmus+ is an EU flagship program that has been running for more than 30 years, helping students to enrich lives and open minds in education, training, and sports in Europe. The program encourages applications for scholarship and exchange program opportunities for undergraduate students wishing to pursue master’s degrees in member countries from the European Union.

This program speaks directly to Kenya’s National Education Sector Support Program and Vision 2030 – the development of a middle-income economy in which all citizens have enhanced entrepreneurship, innovation, and lifelong learning opportunities.

Additionally, it facilitates beneficial interactions between students willing to further their studies abroad within the 10 member states …

Stakeholders from 8 African countries meeting in Tanzania deliberated on policies and frameworks to drive innovation, technology and sustainable mobile payment ecosystem…