Author: David Indeje

Africa’s most ambitious trade project has moved from policy to pavement. The African Continental Free Trade Area Secretariat named Kenya, Morocco and Nigeria on 19 May 2026 as the first three countries to implement ADAPT, a digital infrastructure programme designed to strip out the paperwork, fragmented systems and verification gaps that make trading across African borders expensive and slow. The announcement, made from Accra, marks the operational start of a framework that has been in design since its November 2025 launch. ADAPT stands for Africa Digital Access and Public Infrastructure for Trade. What ADAPT Does ADAPT targets the plumbing of…

Kenya attracted $936 million in venture capital last year, the highest figure recorded on the continent. Ambassador Philip Thigo, Kenya’s Tech Envoy, stood before a room of digital policy professionals this week and asked the startup founders among them to raise their hands if they received any of it. Few did. That moment, more than any panel or policy paper, defined what the second Africa Tech Policy Summit and the nineteenth Kenya Internet Governance Forum were actually about. The two events ran together in Nairobi under the theme “Building Open-Source, Accessible and Democratic Digital Futures,” drawing governments, industry, civil society,…

Every day in 2025, KCB put KShs 1.5 billion into the hands of borrowers through a mobile phone. No branch visit; no paper form; no queue. That figure sits inside the bank’s 2025 Integrated Report and Financial Statements, and it tells a story worth unpacking. Mobile loan disbursements grew 30 percent year on year to KShs 544 billion, pushing the bank’s five-year mobile lending total past KShs 1.6 trillion. Behind that number sits a deliberate set of decisions about who qualifies for credit, how much they can borrow, and how often those limits update. Group Chief Executive Officer Paul Russo…

French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Nairobi on Sunday and moved immediately to business. Before the Africa Forward Summit formally opened, he signed a package of bilateral agreements with President William Ruto covering ports, wind energy, rail, water, digital infrastructure and nuclear cooperation. When the summit opened Monday, Macron announced €23 billion in investment for Africa — €14 billion from French public and private entities and €9 billion from African investors — targeting energy transition, artificial intelligence, the maritime economy and agriculture. He said the deals would generate 250,000 direct jobs across France and Africa. Macron told the audience at…

Safaricom shareholders will receive KSh 80 billion in dividends for the financial year ending 31 March 2026, a 66.7% increase on the previous year and the largest payout in the company’s 25-year history. Net income attributable to shareholders grew 67.3% to a record KSh 100 billion. Kenya crossed KSh 400 billion in service revenue for the first time. Ethiopia halved its startup losses. “Net income attributable to shareholders of Safaricom grew 67.3% to a record 100 billion Kenya shillings,” CEO Peter Ndegwa told shareholders, investors and media at the results presentation. “When you are a CEO presenting these numbers, you…

Kenya’s private sector contracted for a second straight month in April, squeezed by a sharp rise in fuel prices that eroded margins and kept consumers from spending, a closely watched business survey revealed Wednesday. The Stanbic Bank Kenya Purchasing Managers’ Index climbed to 49.4 in April from 47.7 in March, yet stayed below the 50.0 threshold that separates growth from contraction. March had marked the first sub-50 reading since August 2025. Fuel costs drive demand lower across key sectors The primary culprit was energy prices. In mid-April, Kenya raised retail fuel prices by up to 24.2% following a spike in…