Category: East Africa

A majority of executives and business owners have no confidence in the ongoing talks to resolve the dispute over the electoral commission, warning that the stalemate is hurting private sector growth. A survey conducted for the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (Kepsa) revealed that only 39 per cent of the respondents were confident that the stalemate…

The government is seeking the United Nations’ (UN) authority and expertise to map out Kenya’s territorial waters to enable the country exploit huge oil, natural gas and mineral reserves believed to be underneath the Indian Ocean sea bed. Attorney-General Githu Muigai on Monday told the New York-based United Nation’s Commission on the Limits of Continental…

Uganda has picked three Nigerian companies and one from Australia for its oil exploration licensing round, inviting them to negotiate for production sharing agreements, it said on Monday. It announced its first competitive bidding round for six exploration blocks, covering a total of 3,000 square kilometres (1,150 square miles), in February 2015. Bidding documents were…

Kenya plans to offer five Treasury bonds for sale in the first quarter of its 2016/17 (July-June) fiscal year, with tenors ranging from two years to 15 years, the National Treasury said on Monday. The finance ministry said it had shifted to publishing a quarterly rather than monthly issuance calendar as part of reforms meant…

The debate on valued added tax (VAT) on auxiliary services is still raging on as transporters now doubt the credibility of data produced by Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) on port charges. While TRA maintains that a drop in the volume of cargo passing through the Dar es Salaam Port is due to global factors, fuelled…

Kenya overtook South Africa to become the biggest investor in other African countries in terms of the number of projects in 2015. Kenya invested in 36 projects last year in other parts of the continent against South Africa’s 33, a new study by financial consulting firm Ernst & Young shows. It noted that most of…

Parliament yesterday passed a Bill capping bank interest rates at four per cent above the indicative Central Bank Rate (CBR), taking the battle to bring down the cost of loans to the doorsteps of President Uhuru Kenyatta, who must sign it before it can become law. Mr Kenyatta, like his predecessors who have twice rejected…

The government has been challenged to prepare clear-cut strategies that will enable the private sector to come up with an appropriate business plan on how to tap the emerging potential in the form of the move to Dodoma, the new capital designate. Both the Tanzania Private Sector Foundation (TSPF) and an economist from the Confederation…