By PAUL RICHARDSON NAIROBI (Bloomberg) — Puntland, a semi-autonomous region of northeastern Somalia, will conduct a survey of its offshore region to search for oil as the country prepares a licensing round for exploration, the head of the Puntland Petroleum and Minerals Agency said. The government awarded a contract this month to ION Geophysical Corp.,...
BY GILBERT KOECH KENYA will receive €1.8 billion (Sh216.7 billion) from the European Union Emergency Trust Fund to foster stability and counter radicalisation. The fund also seeks to address the refugee crisis in the Sahel region of Lake Chad, the Horn of Africa and North Africa. European Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development Neven Mimica...
By Thorsten Beck, Agenda M-PESA has made quite some headlines since its introduction in 2007. After its launch, the mobile money technology became the payment method of choice across Kenya, given that its use poses lower risks than informal payment methods, storing money in mobile form implies lower risk than holding cash, and using M-PESA...
(The African Post) – Last month, Soma Oil and Gas, a London based energy company, searching for hydrocarbon deposits off the coast of Somalia, announced that it had completed a seismic survey to ascertain the potential for recoverable oil and gas deposits. Although further details have yet to be released, chief executive Rob Sheppard announced...
By Joseph Muraya Nairobi — The African Continent is losing over 50 billion US dollars annually due to Illegal Financial Flows (IFFs), according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, adversely impacting on the economy of the continent. The Commission Chairperson, former South African President Thabo Mbeki, says two thirds of the amount comes...
By Rachel Banning-Lover, The Guardian It’s unusual for a nursery worker to actually build a school. But in 1999 Deqa Khalif began to dream that she and some of the other diaspora families who had fled the Somali civil war eight years earlier might be able to do something for their country. “My friends and...
By Martin Rivers Flydubai, the short-haul affiliate of Emirates Airline, became the latest international carrier to add Somalia to its network in March, when it launched a four-times weekly service to Hargeisa, the capital of the semi-autonomous republic of Somaliland. Ethiopian Airlines and Turkish Airlines launched services to Somaliland and Mogadishu respectively in 2012, gradually...
By Patrick McGroarty And Matina Stevis JOHANNESBURG—As the global oil-price slump passed its one-year anniversary in June, Angola’s President José Eduardo dos Santos booked a trip to Beijing. The long-serving autocrat hoped fresh loans and investment from China, Angola’s top trading partner, would buoy his country’s oil-dependent economy through choppy waters, according to financiers who...
By Brook Abdu There is consensus on the need for regulation but disagreement on details. The Association of Ethiopian Architects’ (AEA) had a debate over the building height revision that the city of Addis Abeba began implementing six months ago. The Association that held its 17th Annual Convention and exhibition at Sheraton Addis from August...
Written by Calestous Juma, Harvard University The World Bank projects that agriculture and agribusiness in Africa will grow to be a US$1 trillion industry in Africa by 2030. To promote this outcome, the continent must review its incentive structures. Agriculture averages 24% of GDP across the continent. With post-harvest activities taken into account, agriculture-related industry...