A panel of African experts is calling for the formation of a borrowers’ club to boost collective advocacy in global finance. The experts have also called on the Group of 20 major economies to team up with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and others to launch a new debt refinancing plan for low-income countries. “Its primary mandate would be to strengthen debtors’ voices in negotiations on reforms to the international financial and debt architecture,” Reuters Africa news quoted the team On the debt refinancing, Reuters Africa says the experts said their proposal would focus on refinancing rather than rescheduling…
Author: Bridgette Atieno
South Nyanza Sugar Company, SONY Sugar, has announced its closure for six weeks beginning Monday, November 17, morning. Managing Director Jane Odhiambo says the closure is to pave the way for the annual maintenance of the machine, which is long overdue. “Unfortunately, no such comprehensive maintenance has been undertaken in the last 34 months (save for a mini maintenance in December 2024),” her communication to the staff and stakeholders reads in part. The overdue maintenance has caused the factory to experience low-capacity utilisation, low sugar recovery and high operating costs, which have hindered the miller’s profitability.
A number of Kenya’s ministerial departments are facing a cyber attack. Access to key ministry websites has been restricted since early morning. The websites, including those of the Presidency, Ministries of Interior, Health, Education, Water and Labour, are currently defaced. Attempts to log into the websites are met with an ‘access denied by PCP’. The message continues, ‘We will rise again, White power worldwide and 14:88 Hail Hitler’. So far, the concerned ministries have yet to speak on the attacks, with insiders indicating that ‘furious attempts are being made to recover the sites. Kenyan government sites have been an easy…
Fossil fuel lobbyists have outnumbered delegates at the ongoing Conference of the Parties (COP30) meeting in Brazil. An analysis by the Kick Big Polluters Out (KBPO) coalition of the attendance list revealed that more than 1600 fossil fuel lobbyists were present in Belem, the venue of the talks. The group says this number is a 12 per cent increase compared to last year’s attendance in Baku, Azerbaijan. ‘With one in every 25 participants in Belém representing the fossil fuel industry, the calls for an accountability framework to protect the talks from big polluters grow stronger,’ the coalition said in a…
Africa’s billionaire Industrialist, Aliko Dangote, has announced plans to invest $1B in Zimbabwe. The announcement followed a meeting between the continent’s richest man and Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa in the capital of Harare. The deal, Dangote says, will see his group develop large-scale projects in cement and power production as well as fuel infrastructure. The planned investments come nearly a decade after the group made an initial move under the late President Robert Mugabe. Speaking to journalists after the meeting, Dangote hailed the current Harare administration for giving them confidence that this is the right time for us to come…
Kenya has been ranked 4th in terms of organised crime in Africa. A new report by the Africa Organised Crime Index says Nairobi follows the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Africa and Nigeria in the 2025 ENACT Africa Organised Crime Index. The report also places East Africa as the highest-scoring region for overall criminality on the continent. In the report, launched in Nairobi, Kenya’s 2025 score for criminality is 7.18 out of 10. The report further says that Nairobi recorded an above-average score in all 15 criminal markets assessed. The assessment looked at human trafficking, human smuggling, heroin trade,…
Group CEO Gideon Muriuki noted that the earnings were anchored on the lenders ‘Soaring Eagle’ strategic plan initiated in 2014. Under the project, Co-op Bank had intended to improve operating efficiency as well as enhance customer experience. In the period, operating expenses went up by 15.4%, while customer deposits increased by 6.7% to Ksh548.6B. Operating income, on the other hand, increased by 13.9% to Ksh67.4B, driven by growth in net interest income. Despite net loan losses and advances growing by 6.6%, to Ksh406.5b, the bank recommended a Ksh1.00 as an interim dividend.