Category: East Africa
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Kenya:Treasury gives KQ Sh10bn loan for turnaround plans
Troubled national carrier Kenya Airways has received Sh10 billion soft loan from the National Treasury, giving the airline muscle to implement its turnaround strategy. The government borrowed the cash from China’s Exim Bank on behalf of KQ whose fortunes have dwindled in the last five years hurting its ability to book debt on its own.…
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Ethiopia, Morocco to Beef Up Relations
Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn met with Moroccan Foreign Minister Salaheddine Mezouar yesterday to discuss ways of strengthening cooperation and partnership between Ethiopia and Morocco. African Affairs Director General with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Girma Temesgen, who attended the talks, told journalists that the discussion focused on how both countries could elevate their relations and…
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East Africa:Congo says to repay VAT to mining companies
Congo will pay some $700 million in value-added tax reimbursements owed to mining companies and suspend VAT on their imports, the finance minister said on Friday. The government suspended the reimbursements in April, seeking to shore up the franc currency, but Finance Minister Henri Yav Mulang told Reuters he has instructed the central bank to…
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Kenya Airways halts flights to South Sudan capital Juba
Kenya Airways said on Sunday it was suspending flights to South Sudan’s capital Juba after a flare-up of fighting between rival factions in the unity government. “We wish to advise our guests that we have suspended flights to Juba, South Sudan due to uncertain security situation,” the airline wrote on its Twitter account. The clashes…
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Kenya:Real estate slowdown leaves banks with rising pile of bad loans
Kenyan banks reported a steady rise in the pile of bad debts in the first three months of the year saddled by a slowdown in the real estate sector and increased retrenchment of formal sector workers, according to newly-released official data. Gross non-performing loans (NPLs) rose 15.8 per cent to Sh170.6 billion in March compared…
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Tanzania: How Agents Steal From Cotton Farmers
The Weighing and Measures Agency (WMA) has alerted cotton farmers in the Lake Zone against unscrupulous agents who tamper with weighing scales. WMA director of technical services Stella Kahwa said the agency found out that many agents had tampered with weighing devices. Ms Kahwa said out of 191 weighing scales inspected by the agency in…
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Tanzania: Kilindi District Appeals for Assistance in Gold Mining
A quarterly news online magazine of the Centre for Exploration Targeting, (CET), says ‘Handeni Region’ appeared on the basis of the aeromagnetic interpretation to represent an extension of the Lake Nyanza Super-terrane which contains the most prospective segment of the Lake Victoria Goldfields in the Sukumaland Terrane to the west-northwest. Amphibolite belts of similar size…
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Kenya Airways to cut 80 jobs in first phase of layoffs
Kenya Airways has commenced its staff rationalisation exercise with 80 staff set to be affected in the first phase of a redundancy plan that will see 600 employees retrenched or moved. KQ, as the national carrier is known by its international code, is laying off the employees as part of cost-cutting measures it is implementing…
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Uganda: Russian Firm Speaks Out on Failed Refinery Talks
Just days after the government announced publicly it had suspended negotiations with a Russian consortium, RT Global Resources, for the development of the proposed 60,000 barrels per day (Bpd) refinery; the consortium has said it is still interested and open to talks for the project. The coordinator of the consortium, Rostec, a Russian State corporation…
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Kenya:Rotich eases Kibaki, Moi pension pain for taxpayers by Sh22m
Former presidents Mwai Kibaki and Daniel arap Moi will earn less pension in the current financial year after the Treasury reduced the annual allocation to them by Sh22 million, reversing last year’s increment that was seen as burdensome to the taxpayers. The retired presidents have been allocated Sh42 million for pension this year down from…