NAIROBI, Oct 7 (Reuters) – Shares of Kenyan telecoms operator Safaricom (SCOM.NR) surged more than 9% on Friday after it secured a mobile financial services licence in Ethiopia, market participants said. Ethiopia’s Finance Minister Ahmed Shide said on Thursday his country had given Safaricom the licence in one of Africa’s largest telecoms markets as the company formally...
As drought and famine continue to plague Somalia, women are using a centuries-old scheme to help each other. By Moulid Hujale Mogadishu, Somalia – Once every month, a group of 10 women gather at the makeshift shelter of Layla Hussein Tawane in a camp for internally displaced people in Mogadishu. Each of them brings $10 to contribute...
“I’m learning at this age because I want to be able to use mobile money,” 60-year-old central Somali pastoralist Abdullahi Mohamed Ali told Radio Ergo, praising the new literacy classes he is attending in his village. Abdullahi, who keeps 120 goats in Hinjilabi, a remote part of Galgadud region, is so excited about learning that...
By Aggrey Mutambo Somalia’s money remittance firm Amal Express says it is open to an audit by regulators to prove it has not aided money laundering for purchase of illegal arms. The company, which runs the semi-formal transfer service known as Hawala in most East African countries, says it has always followed local laws and standards, including...
NAIROBI (Reuters) – Somali money transfer companies moved more than $3.7 million (£2.8 million) in cash between suspected weapons traffickers in recent years, including to a Yemeni under U.S. sanctions for alleged militant links, according to a report seen by Reuters. The findings by a Geneva-based research group, the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime,...
NAIROBI, When she wants to know what seed variety to grow, Josephine Mutuku would take up her smartphone, open an app and types in the name of the crop and its region of cultivation. Mutuku, 38, is a farmer in Kenya’s Machakos county. Once she gets the information, Mutuku can then choose the seeds and...
By PETER LLOYD How much is enough? A quarter of millionaires worth $1.5 million (£1.18 million) said that they’d need eleven times more money to be perfectly happy, despite their wealth (stock image) t’s official: money doesn’t buy you happiness. Even millionaires think genuine pleasure is out of reach, despite their fortune – and can only...
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — War profiteers, terror financiers and drug traffickers sanctioned by the U.S. in recent years have used Dubai’s real-estate market as a haven for their assets, a new report released Tuesday alleges. The report by the Washington-based Center for Advanced Defense Studies, relying on leaked property data from the city-state,...
Nairobi — Mobile money transfer company eDahab will comply with the new financial regulation set by the Somaliland government which mandates all mobile payments under $100 be made in Somaliland currency. The new regulation bars also mobile payment companies from providing foreign exchange services through the mobile payment systems. The regulation is intended to stabilize...
By HERBLING DAVID Equity Bank #ticker:EQTY has so far issued loans worth Sh57 billion through its platform Equitel launched in May 2014, highlighting Kenya’s growing uptake of mobile lending. Kenya’s biggest bank by customer numbers said it processed a total of 7.5 million loan requests, with eight out of every 10 loan demands currently being...