UK-based firm lines up project financing to connect 260 million people in Africa to electricity
The International Energy Agency (IEA) forecasts that the number of people in Sub-Saharan Africa without power – 600 million – will be largely unchanged by 2030. Mini-grids, which are self-sufficient electricity grids that can serve households and businesses, have a critical role to play in bridging the gap. They are the least-cost method to bring electricity to over 260 million people.
Kenya’s grim economic outlook forces Uganda to give exclusive petroleum supply deal to Vitol
Using Kenyan importers had “exposed Uganda to occasional supply vulnerabilities where the Ugandan retail companies were considered secondary whenever there were supply disruptions,” which affected retail prices, Nankabirwa said.
Millions of jobs in Kenya, South Africa and 3 others in limbo over AGOA trade initiative
Apparel has been the standout success story of AGOA, which launched in 2000 to help develop African economies and foster democracy. African apparel exports under the programme reached nearly $1.4 billion last year, double the pre-AGOA amount.
‘Speech protections are not just for views we agree with but also for views we most strongly oppose’
The Westminster Declaration also cites the UDHR (United Nations Human Rights), which “was drafted in 1948 in response to atrocities committed during World War II,” as another example of how protections for free speech are legally enshrined. The declaration specifically cites Article 19 of the UDHR, which states, “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.’”
US to evict Gabon, Niger, Uganda and Central African Republic from Agoa trade programme
Launched in 2000, AGOA grants exports from qualifying countries duty-free access to the US market. It is set to expire in September 2025, but discussions are already underway over whether to extend it and for how long.
World Bank predicts meteoric spike in oil prices if Israel-Hamas war escalates
Some analysts are sceptical that the US would experience massive oil shortages, since US oil production is at an all-time high.
Digital IDs: Human rights groups in Kenya want stronger legislative basis to eliminate bias and erosion of privacy
Dr Ngare said that Gates’ involvement with Maisha Namba is just one of his many interests in Africa, having previously been involved with “The clandestine administration of fertility regulating Tetatus vaccines to Kenyan women in 2014-2015, facilitated by Gavi and the WHO,” which he says “is still fresh in our minds.”
Surveillance fears emerge over why Bill Gates is pushing President Ruto to endorse digital IDs for newborns in Kenya
Some experts said they believe the Maisha Namba programme has other, unannounced, aims. Dr Wahome Ngare, chairman of the Kenya Catholic Doctors Association, told The Defender that Maisha Namba will operate as a vaccination tracking programme.
Africa’s cultural conquest of West has gained pace through music, industrialisation is limping
African fashion had its own shows in Paris and Milan. In Venice, Africa is the focus of this year’s Architectural Biennale. Last year, an architect from Burkina Faso won the prestigious Pritzker Prize. In 2021, Tanzania-born Abdulrazak Gurnah won the Nobel Prize in Literature.
When to ignore an instruction from your boss: Avoid emails asking you to approve payments
BEC wire transfer fraud sees criminals taking advantage of an expected financial transaction such as a supplier payment, and asking the recipient to adjust the bank account information on an outgoing wire transfer. In many cases, the instruction may appear to come from the victim’s boss, and may even be written in a similar style that is used by the boss.
