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(Left to right) Monica Nyawira Kang’uru, Chamsou D. Andjorin (Director Government Affairs and Market Development, Boeing International Sub-Sahara Africa) and Aogah Winnie Achieng Still in their 20s, Aogah Winnie Achieng and Monica Nyawira Kang’uru , have already managed to work at international corporations’ and with the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority; they have also won an acclaimed competition for young innovators. So it’s no wonder the two Kenyan students caught the attention of Boeing Commercial Airplanes and were selected for its six month International Business Internship Program (IBIP) in Seattle, USA. Launched in 2012, IBIP gives valuable exposure to Boeing’s latest advances in business and technology, with hands-on experience of a variety of disciplines, including business operations, finance, marketing, and strategy in the aviation industry. J. Miguel Santos, Managing Director for Sub-Sahara Africa of Boeing International and Director of International Sales for Boe...

British Airways’ Ksh 0.5 trillion investment plan is delivering dividends for its African customers, with the airline increasing routes and capacity on the continent and introducing new onboard products and services. Most recently it started three flights a week from London Heathrow directly to Durban, South Africa’s largest port city, using one of its newest aircraft, the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner.  The Durban services began just after it added four 787-8 flights a week between London and Johannesburg to complement the existing double-daily A380 schedule. It has also increased its daily Cape Town winter schedule to provide double-daily summer flights from Heathrow as well as offering three weekly flights between Gatwick and South Africa’s Mother City. “With 38 flights a week, this is the most choice and capacity we’ve ever offered between South Africa and the UK,” says Sue Petrie, British Airways’ trade commercial manager for Southern Africa. Other new routes in...

Investors will need to weather more volatility in order to capture opportunities in 2019, according to the Year Ahead report from UBS, the world's leading wealth manager. Global economic growth will decelerate next year to 3.6% from 3.8% in 2018, and company earnings will grow at a slower rate. However, a 2019 recession still looks unlikely, and the price of many financial assets has already moved to reflect uncertain prospects. UBS Global Wealth Management's Chief Investment Office (CIO) enters the year with an overweight position in global equities. However, as the market cycle matures, investors should diversify and hedge their portfolios to guard against volatility as well as political and other risks. They should also take advantage of growth in fields like sustainable and impact investing, and pockets of value where financial asset prices are excessively low. Mark Haefele, Chief Investment Officer at UBS Global Wealth Management, says: "Investors should re...

Most African countries are reported to have a positive economic outlook, apart from those with upcoming elections. This is according to ICAEW’s (the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales) latest report. In Economic Insight: Africa Q4 2018, launched today, the accountancy body provides GDP growth forecasts for various regions including East Africa which is forecast at 6.3%, West and Central Africa as 2.5%, Franc Zone at 4.6%, and Southern Africa at 1.2%. The report underscores political stability as a key economic driver for most African countries. The report, commissioned by ICAEW and produced by partner and forecaster Oxford Economics, provides a snapshot of the region’s economic performance. The regions include; East Africa, West and Central Africa, Franc Zone, Northern Africa, Southern Africa. According to the report, political tensions have had a significant impact on economic growth within the region. Figure 1 : Africa GDP growth by region, 2013-19 ...

From left: Job Wasonga, (Project Manager, CARE International),  Dorothy Nyong'o (First Lady of Kisumu County),  Dorcas Wasonga and Joyce Kariuki (P&G representative) Procter & Gamble (P&G) and Care International celebrated the provision of 71 million litres of clean water to Nyanza, as part of P&G’s Children’s Safe Drinking Water (CSDW) program, on 30 th November at the screening of their Transformation of Water documentary in Kisumu County. They invested over KES 300 million during the program. The program has so far touched 150,000 households in Migori and Siaya and has assisted the Kisumu County Government in flood areas and during cholera outbreaks. “According to water.org, 41%  of  Kenyans still rely on unimproved  water  sources, such as ponds, shallow wells and rivers . Stakeholders in private and public sector need to collaborate to improve this situation. Access to clean water would drastically reduce the number of diarr...

(L to R) Meir Hadassi, CEO Aero CRS with Oliver Dlouhy, CEO, KIWI. COM and Eran Feinstein, CEO DPO Group during a press conference to announce a partnership that will see DPO power payments for the firm DPO Group, the leading payment service provider in Africa, has announced a partnership with Aero CRS (an airline customer reservation system) that will see DPO power all the payments at the back-end ensuring all parties receive their payments in real time. In addition, all the payments from the customer side will be checked by the DPO fraud prevention team in real time. The announcement was made at the Aero CRS network’s annual customer conference held in Nairobi. The Aero CRS Network, which was launched recently, provides a cloud-based platform to help regional and local airlines get more distribution on Online Travel agents (OTAs), meta-searches and different aggregators all over the world. This means that a standard point to point airline, low-cost carrier or charter opera...

PharmAccess, CarePay and Sanofi have announced a new partnership, Ngao Ya Afya (“Shield for Health”). Ngao Ya Afya aims to facilitate access to better diabetes and hypertension care in Kenya through a low cost, mobile technology-enabled model. The partnership is committed to advancing patient access to care and testing new solutions to support government and private payers address healthcare affordability and financing challenges. Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) are the leading cause of death globally, killing 41 million people each year, equivalent to 71% of all deaths globally[1]. NCDs account for 27% of the total deaths and over 50% of total hospital admissions in Kenya[2]. The highest risks of dying from NCDs are in low and middle-income countries (LMIC) – especially sub-Saharan Africa – with 85% of these deaths occurring in LMICs. Worldwide these countries are struggling to scale up NCD response due to lack of funding, staff and infrastructure. This program aims to use mobile t...

Visa, the global payments technology company, has announced a strategic partnership with Halotel to enable Visa on mobile payments on Halotel’s HaloPesa wallet in Tanzania.  The service will be rolled out in early 2019 thereby enabling HaloPesa’s one million registered wallet holders to use Visa on mobile to securely make merchant payments and conduct cash deposits and withdrawals at Visa agents. Any HaloPesa customer, including those who do not have a bank account, will be able to benefit from the solution. The aim is to connect more Tanzanians to the global payment system, bringing secure and convenient mobile commerce for consumers and merchants.  “We are excited about this partnership with a key mobile service provider such as Halotel. Our partnership with Halotel will ensure that Tanzanians can pay using Visa on their mobiles at over 40,000 new retailers. It will also help expand financial inclusion for Tanzanian consumers who will now be able to benefit from pa...

Visa Inc. today announced that Aida Diarra has joined the company as Senior Vice President and Group Country Manager for Visa SSA, effective 1 November 2018. Diarra will oversee all Visa operations in forty-eight markets across Sub-Saharan Africa. She will report to Visa’s Regional President of CEMEA, Andrew Torre, and join Visa’s Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEMEA) regional management team.  Diarra is a highly experienced executive in the financial services and digital financial industry and is well versed in growing business and operations across the African continent. Her twenty-five-year career includes strategy development and implementation, business development and operational management. Aida joins Visa from Western Union, where she was the Regional Vice President for Africa & Managing Director for more than four years. Prior to this, she held a number of progressive leadership positions at the global money transfer business, developing her e...

By Michael Armstrong (FCA) [ICAEW Regional Director for Middle East, Africa and South Asia] The current account balance is primarily the difference between a country’s total exports and imports of goods and services, usually measured as a share of GDP. Surpluses tend to be reported as “good” or “healthy”, while deficits are often regarded as “bad”. The importance of an economy’s balance of payments can never be overstated as it reveals various aspects of a country’s international economic position and presents the international financial position of the country. In the case of a developing country like Kenya, the balance of payments shows how much its economic development depends on financial assistance from developed countries. The Kenyan economy is currently on a rebound. According to a report by the World Bank, real GDP growth is estimated to rise gradually to 6.0 per cent by 2020. This is thanks to improved rains, better business sentiment and the easing of political unce...

Michael Armstrong By Michael Armstrong, (FCA) [Regional Director for the Middle East, Africa and South Asia at ICAEW) Unemployment is a crisis that faces every economy globally. Closer home, latest statistics from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) show that seven million Kenyans are unemployed. Out of these, 1.4 million have been desperately looking for work. The rest have given up on job hunting, either opting to go back for further studies or venturing into entrepreneurship as a means of economic empowerment. One reason why job seekers may have trouble finding a job is that the hiring firms are unaware of the specific skill sets that are available within the talent pool but this is changing today due to the establishment of numerous job sites which have made it easier to look for a job. Despite this, it is still hard to figure out which firms you’re applying to work for as many agencies don’t include the name of the brand in the advert. How then do you know you...

From Left:  Prudential Africa Kenya CEO-Andrew Greenwood, the company's Chief Commercial Officer-Gwen Kinisu, Head of Operations-Irene Kamau and Daniel Beresford Senior  Prudential Life Assurance has today announced the launch of Pru Dahari-Dumu, the first insurance product in Kenya  with a “Never Lapse Guarantee”, a feature that guarantees policyholders will keep their product, and its benefits, irrespective of life’s circumstances. The “Never Lapse Guarantee” alleviates one of the major concerns Kenyans have about insurance. This is that unforeseen circumstances might lead them to miss some premium payments on their insurance policies which results in these policies “lapsing” and the savings & protection benefits of the policy being lost. Data compiled by the Association of Kenya Insurers indicates that in Kenya, 1-in-3 policies lapse in the first year. By the end of the third year, 6-in-10 policies will have lapsed.  Pru Dahari-Dumu is a 5-10 year ...

Phatisa is pleased to announce the first close of its successor fund to the African Agriculture Fund (AAF) – Phatisa Food Fund 2 (PFF 2), which has received capital commitments in excess of US$ 120 million. Given the strong interest, and with subsequent investors in different stages of their processes, Phatisa will continue with rolling closings and expects to reach a final close target of  US$ 300 million by mid-2019. For PFF 2, Phatisa will continue its focus on the team’s core skill set  –  the African food value chain – considering investments in mechanisation, inputs, poultry and meat production, food processing and manufacturing, logistics, aggregation and distribution across sub-Saharan Africa. Targeting buy-out and expansion transactions with an investment size of between US$ 15 million and US$ 25 million, building and exiting regional platforms. As with AAF, by raising international capital to be invested into Africa’s food value chain...

The countries that have seen the greatest growth in flight bookings from travellers in Kenya in the last 12 months are the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan and Spain, according to an analysis conducted by Travelport , a leading Travel Commerce Platform.   From 1 August 2017 to 31 July 2018, bookings made in Kenya through all global distribution systems (GDS) to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) increased by 675 on the previous 12 months. Due to the large volume of flights that leave Kenya for the UAE, this represented an overall growth of 2%.  The greatest spike in bookings to the UAE was registered in June 2018, up 33% on June 2017.  Bookings to Pakistan from Kenya over the last 12 months rose by 631, up 47%, and to Spain by 564, up 26%. Volume growth to Pakistan was largely driven by a 551% jump in bookings in September 2017 compared to September 2016. Bookings to Spain enjoyed a peak in July 2018, with volume up 109% on July 2017.   ...

Effective public financial management is essential for economic success, and at its core is the need to build and maintain trust. Trust grows out of a culture of rigorous independent scrutiny which enables citizens to see that the decisions their leaders take are in the public interest. According to ICAEW’s recent report on building trust in public finances, a culture of trust is pegged to a number of factors and elements. Strong public financial management requires transparency in how resources are raised, managed and used, together with accountability, to instil confidence and promote continuous improvement. For example, in Uganda, the budget information is usually uploaded on a website. This promotes transparency and accountability by showing detailed information on how resources are allocated and used, plus performance indicators from national down to parish level. Citizens and other stakeholders can provide feedback on service delivery in their local areas and report ...

(from left): Charles Natai (Country Director Maxcom Africa), Jameson Kasati  (Director General Maxcom Africa), Juma Rajabu (Founder and Executive Director Maxcom Africa) and Sunny Walia, (General Manager - East Africa) of Visa. Visa, the global leader in payments, today announced a strategic partnership with Maxcom Africa PLC - a merchant aggregator also known as Maxmalipo - that will enable more than 30,000 retailers in Tanzania to accept Visa on mobile payments, as well as 20,000 local agents to conduct cash deposits and withdrawals. This effort aims to connect more Tanzanian consumers to the global payment system.  This comes as part of Visa’s strategic move to provide mobile payment services across East Africa. This follows Visa’s success in Kenya where the solution was launched in partnership with partnerships with Barclays Bank, Cooperative Bank, Ecobank, Family Bank, KCB Bank, National Bank of Kenya, NIC Bank, Prime Bank, and Standard Chartered Bank. “Vis...