Accor hotel chain adds Turkey, India to its Middle East and Africa business
Accor, a world-leading augmented hospitality group, has added India and Turkey to its Middle East and Africa region.The newly expended region will now comprise of a portfolio of more than 84,000 rooms across 400 hotels.With the industry’s most dynamic portfolio of brands, covering every market segment from economy to luxury...
Nairobi sucked into ‘fool’s gold’ as the mineral fuels conflict in central Africa
Despite efforts invested licit mineral trade to stifle gold smuggling and money-laundering, East Africa – with Nairobi and Kampala as pivots – still towers other countries in Africa as a major conduit for pirated gold and diamonds from conflict regions in the South and Central Africa. East Africa is in...
The Big Bang: Franco and Verckys split that reshaped rhumba music forever
A rebellion in Orchestra Oscar Kashama (OK) in 1968 gave Africa rich a cultural diversity that lives on to this day.It happened when OK – later renamed Orchestra Kinshasa – band leader Luambo Luanzo Makiadi (Francois) was away on a business trip in Europe and forever changed the course, tenor...
Trade: Synthetic alternatives to endangered wildlife products being developed
Roughly a million species are threatened with extinction, according to a major international study published last year. And trade and personal use by people is the second leading driver behind habitat destruction, the research established.Conservation agency, Cites (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora)...
Kenya tops Africa as East Africa dominates World Travel Awards
Kenya and South Africa won multiple awards in this year’s prestigious World Travel Awards (WTA), with Africa’s leading tourist destination in 2020 being reserved for the East African nation.While and South Africa basked in the glory of being picked as Africa’s destinations of choice, Ethiopia took pride in being Africa’s...
Fund launches business competition in refugee hosting areas
The Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund (AECF) and its partners International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, the United Nations High Commission for Refugee (UNHCR) and the Turkana County government have launched a global competition for private sector and social enterprise projects to support investment, development and...
BEAC must rethink its new forex regulation to save jobs in Central Africa
On March 1, 2019, a new Foreign Exchange Currency Regulation was adopted by the members of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa states – CEMAC.These member states – Gabon, Cameroon, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, the Central African Republic and Chad) – essentially mandated their Central Bank...
Kenya: Kakamega on cusp of commercial fish farming as arable land shrinks
Endowed with rainfall all-year-round and a population big enough to constitute a huge market for fish, Kakamega county has for generations looked to Lake Victoria for this important food resource rich in protein.Things are changing fast, and as the world explores ways and means of scaling up supply, Kakamega county...
ADB donates $440,000 to South Sudan and Sudan flood victims
The African Development Bank Group has approved an emergency assistance relief package of $440,000 to fund ongoing humanitarian and emergency relief efforts in areas recently hit by floods in South Sudan and Sudan.The package, from the bank’s special relief fund, will be split nearly equally between the two countries and...
Criminal gangs thirst for control of avocado trade in Kenya, southern Africa
As Kenyan fruit farmers get ready to take advantage of the expanding avocado market in China and other Far East countries, the Global Initiative Against Organised Crime warns about the emergence of the crop as a target of the criminal underworld in eastern and southern Africa. In the past six-month...
