Browsing: U.S and China

1. The United States, one of Africa’s strongest development partners—will provide Zambia with a $389 million grant (one-year bilateral grant) aimed towards AIDS relief.

According to information revealed by Reuters, Zambia ministry of health revealed, the grant will be starting from October after Congressional approval.

Further, the grant under the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) follows a meeting on Zambia which was held last week in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Zambia and U.S relations towards eliminating HIV/AIDS kick-started in 2004, whereby since the U.S. government through PEPFAR has partnered with the government of Zambia via the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the National HIV/AIDS council in coordinating a national HIV response.

The ministry statement revealed that “The meeting reviewed key policies, strategies and activities to be undertaken towards the goal of achieving epidemic control of HIV,”

However, Zambia’s Health Minister Chitalu Chilufya said the meeting marked a milestone in …

The Bank of Uganda held its benchmark interest rate yet in an effort to keep inflation down and below target and to support economic growth.

The central bank rate (CBR) was kept unchanged at 9 per cent, initially set in October 2019 and maintained in December. The band on the CBR was maintained at positive or negative 3 percentage points while the rediscount rate remained at 13 per cent and the bank rate remained 14 per cent.

“The evaluation of the macroeconomic developments and outlook based on the available information set suggests that, at the current CBR, the monetary policy stance is accommodative and that inflation will converge to target in the medium term while supporting economic growth,” said the monetary policy statement explaining the decision.

The Bank said that Uganda’s economy is expected to expand at between 5.5 and 6 per cent in the 2019 fiscal year, which runs …