East African Business Notifier

Cervical cancer remains one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths among women globally, despite being almost entirely preventable. In Africa, it continues to claim lives not because science has failed, but because policy ambition has fallen short. Over 200 strains of human papillomavirus (HPV) exist, with 12 high-risk types responsible for most HPV-related cancers.  Although HPV vaccines can prevent almost 90% of cervical cancer, most women remain unvaccinated, leaving cervical cancer among the top killers of women worldwide, with more than 94% of deaths occurring in low- and middle-income countries.  At current rates of vaccination and coverage, hundreds of thousands of African women will die from a cancer that could have been prevented with vaccines already available.  Cervical cancer hits the hardest where vulnerability is greatest. The World Health Organization (WHO) identifies sub-Saharan Africa as the region with...

  By Michael Jjingo Are you faint-heartened? Business requires that brilliant founder, the lightning-bolt idea, and sometimes mythical overnight success. Yet anyone who has actually built a business knows the truth is far less glamorous and far more demanding.  Real success is forged through grit with focus: inner strength, guts, innovation, tenacity, and that unteachable fire within. As the saying goes, “Talent may start the race, but grit is what drags you across the finish line.” In business, brilliance opens doors, but endurance keeps them open.   Grit itself is silent and deeply unfashionable. It doesn’t announce itself on TikTok or wear expensive suits. It only shows up, every day, especially when things are not working.  Many ventures collapse not because the idea was weak, but because persistence ran out. This is why it is often said, “Success in business is less about having the right answers and more about refusing to stop asking the question...

As the year gains momentum, many Ugandans are realising that strong financial outcomes are rarely accidental. They are the result of early planning, intentional use of income, and access to flexible financial solutions that allow individuals to act decisively when opportunities arise.  For salary earners in particular, timely access to credit can be the difference between staying reactive and building lasting financial security. KCB Bank Uganda is repositioning borrowing as a tool for intentional financial planning through its Unsecured Personal Loan for salaried customers. By removing collateral requirements and simplifying access, the Bank enables customers to plan early, invest deliberately and pursue their goals with confidence, not as a last resort, but as a proactive financial choice. Across the country, salary earners are increasingly seeking structured ways to use their income to unlock opportunity. For a mid-career professional planning to upgrade their qualifications, ear...

Julie McCarthy WARWICK, NEW YORK – The latest United Nations Climate Change Conference ended in a political deadlock. COP30 in Belém produced no agreement to phase out fossil fuels, no binding plan to halt deforestation, and no meaningful increase in support for the countries already drowning – sometimes literally – in climate and ecological losses. For a summit held in the world’s largest rainforest, the symbolism was brutal. But the real story was not the political paralysis on the negotiating floor. It was the unmistakable signal that the economics of climate change have already moved on. To see the developments that really matter, we can look to corporate balance sheets, sovereign credit ratings, supply chains, and risk pricing. These show that the transition to carbon-neutrality is happening despite the dysfunctional politics surrounding the issue. When it comes to addressing major global risks, politics often fail until the economic math works out. In the case of climate change a...

  Moreno Bertoldi, Marco Buti MILAN/FLORENCE – Over the past year, the United States and China have consolidated their positions as the world’s leading superpowers, largely at the expense of everyone else. In both countries, growth has remained strong despite the disruptions and volatility caused by the breakdown of the rules-based international order, which US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping have actively fueled. Yet these headline figures conceal deeper weaknesses. In the US, strong growth masks a K-shaped recovery that has given rise to a politically toxic affordability crisis. Trump’s tariffs, in particular, have kept inflation above the Federal Reserve’s target while failing to deliver any meaningful reduction in the current-account deficit. In China, by contrast, robust growth has been driven primarily by surging exports, with the country’s trade surplus  surpassing $1 trillion  for the first time in 2025. But the success of Xi’s “ new ...

Peter G. Kirchschläger ZURICH – What we typically refer to as “artificial intelligence” is, in practice, a set of  data-based systems  (DS). These technologies are already transforming nearly every aspect of human life, giving rise to innovative business models and reordering entire economies.  Over time, they promise to create new jobs, boost productivity, and provide tools that extend cognitive capabilities, ultimately redefining the meaning of work itself. But alongside these undeniable benefits, the digital revolution and rapid spread of DS are disrupting labor markets, education, and professional training.  The consequences are increasingly evident: precarious working conditions determined by algorithm-driven platforms, sustained downward pressure on wages, and a structural mismatch between what economies need and what workers are trained to do. This raises a critical question: Will the growing use of DS render paid professional work obsolete? Every technologica...

Kaushik Basu At the cusp of a new year, the global outlook appears increasingly grim. Escalating conflicts and resurgent authoritarianism are undermining domestic and international institutions alike, while rising wealth inequality is deepening economic insecurity and eroding social cohesion. Perhaps the most dispiriting development is the growing hatred of the “other.” In country after country, political leaders increasingly dehumanize migrants and refugees, casting people fleeing poverty, persecution, and conflict as a mortal threat. Such rhetoric brings to mind W. H. Auden’s “ Refugee Blues .” Written on the eve of World War II – a period when refugees were similarly blamed for economic insecurity and social decline – the poem depicts a speaker at a public meeting who warns, “If we let them in, they will steal our daily bread.” The rise of xenophobic populism is not occurring in a vacuum. It is at least partly driven by a profound structural shift that is often overlooked by social ...

Peter Thomson  While the ocean’s health is perilously close to a tipping point, 2025 offered reasons for hope. In fact, over the next five years, we have an opportunity to pull back from the brink and ensure that the ocean continues to stabilize the climate, feed billions of people, and support the livelihoods of coastal communities. If we fail to seize this chance, the consequences will be dire for generations to come. As a Fijian, I understand that the ocean’s irreversible degradation is not an abstract concern.  Pacific Islanders live with the reality of rising sea levels claiming more of our coastline every year and contaminating the aquifers we use for agriculture and drinking water. Warming waters supercharge tropical cyclones and destroy the coral reefs that provide food security and coastal protection. But amid these challenges, and following years of incrementalism, international efforts to protect the ocean gained momentum in 2025, leading to some landmark decisions....

Mekala Krishnan, Annabel Farr, Kanmani Chockalingam  Humanity has long learned to live with extreme weather. Much of the Netherlands would be under water were it not for centuries of ingenious adaptation to the constant threat of flooding.  Likewise, ancient communities on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates developed ways to capture and direct excess water to nourish and protect fields. But the number of places exposed to extreme weather will only grow. According to new research from the McKinsey Global Institute,  Advancing adaptation: Mapping costs from cooling to coastal defenses , the world spends $190 billion per year on investments in 20 key adaptation measures that protect roughly 1.2 billion people. But three billion more people, over three-quarters of whom live in low-income regions, have only limited protection. Extending developed-economy standards of protection to all exposed places would require $540 billion annually. That means there is a $350 billion gap...