Author: David Indeje

The COMESA Business Council signed a  USD 1.5 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to offer technical support to Small and Medium Enterprises through a digital financial platform. The grant which is spread across two years -2019/2020 will be implemented in partnership with the Kenya Association of Manufacturers. The Project will support the design, development, and deployment of a low-cost, interoperable and fraud-resistant integrated digital financial services for SMEs. “The project will focus at looking at how SMEs perform when trading across borders within the region,” said Ms. Sandra Uwera, chief executive officer COMESA Business Council. Sandra…

The World Bank has approved Ksh750 billion loan to Kenya that focused mainly on support for agriculture and housing, the bank said in a statement. “Measures supported by this operation are expected to benefit ordinary Kenyans through better targeting of agricultural subsidies to reach low-income farmers, prosecuting those who engage in fraudulent procurement, increasing the availability of affordable housing, and improving revenue mobilization,” said the World Bank in its approval notice. “We expect that this operation will help to reduce bid rigging in government procurement thereby leading to fiscal savings and more resources for developmental purposes,” the World Bank said.…

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) will come into force on Thursday creating a single African market of over one-billion consumers with a total GDP of more than  $3-trillion. “It puts Africa on track to create the largest free trade agreement by country & population since the 1995 creation of the World Trade Organisation (WTO),” said the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). In April, the AfCFTA Agreement secured the minimum threshold of 22 ratifications for it to enter into force thirty days after the deposit of the twenty-second deposit. According to the AU and African Ministers…

Online ticketing firm Buupas has partnered with Safaricom M-pesa platform to scale up its booking services to customers. “We are glad to partner with Safaricom to provide travellers with an easy and flexible solution to book and manage their journey,” BuuPass co-founder and director Sonia Kabra said in a statement. The service is currently available with five bus operators including Easy Coach, Modern Coast, Greenline, Palmers and East African Shuttles, and looks to onboard more than 20 additional operators by the end of the year. Customers can access the service by dialing *877# and at buupass.com with payments accepted through…

The World Health Organization (WHO) has for the first time recognized “burn-out” in its International Classification of Diseases (ICD), a benchmark for health diagnosis. The WHO has now classified burnout as “a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.” “It is characterized by three dimensions: feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion; increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job; and reduced professional efficacy.” “Burn-out refers specifically to phenomena in the occupational context and should not be applied to describe experiences in other areas of life,”…

Kenya’s foreign exchange reserves hit a life-time high of 10.06 billion US dollars, the central bank confirmed on Monday. “This gives the central bank unprecedented cushion against external shocks. Moreover, sustained stability in the current account position should offer fundamental support for the currency,” according to Faith Atiti and Stephanie Kimani, Commercial Bank of Africa Limited Market Analysts. The Central Bank said the foreign exchange market has remained stable supported by the narrowing of the current account deficit to 4.5% of GDP in the 12 months to April 2019 from 5.5% in April 2018. READ: Kenya’s Central Bank Keeps Key…