East African Business Notifier

  The Real Housewives of Durban reunion will air on Showmax in two parts on 15 and 22 May 2024, following a dramatic Season 4 finale. It saw the ladies separated into two groups and tea spilt from all directions, with accusations of witchcraft, infidelity, control, and alcoholism. We chatted with all the ladies to get a sense of how they are feeling about the reunion, which will be hosted by MaBlerh, and facing up to everything that’s happened this season.   Newcomers Ameigh Thompson, Angel Ndlela and Zama Ngcobo are all feeling nervous about their first reunion but that won’t stop them from showing up. Zama, who has been involved in some of the biggest feuds in the season, says she won’t run away from anything that happened. “I am not a coward,” she says. “What I said on the show is how I feel. People think I won’t show up to the reunion because I am scared. I am not. I am going to go in there and speak my mind. I will not be intimidated by anyone.” Angel says she’s l...

  The inaugural Djibouti Forum brought together nearly 400 delegates, including international institutional investors collectively overseeing a staggering $2.5 trillion in assets. Describing the forum as a “resounding success”, Dr. Slim Feriani, CEO of Fonds Souverain de Djibouti (Djibouti’s sovereign wealth fund), noted that it was evident that there “is great and growing interest in Djibouti.” During the closing ceremony of the two-day event, Feriani signed a memorandum of understanding with Tamini Insurance, part of the influential Salaam Group, a leading financial conglomerate in Djibouti. Tamini Insurance’s CEO, Mohamed Bahdon, announced that under the agreement, their clients—numbering over 4,000—will now have access to Djibouti’s first crowdfunding platform, Inclufin. Through this platform, Tamini Insurance clients can invest in socially impactful entrepreneurial ventures in the country while earning returns on their savings. “It’s an opportunity for our clients to inves...

By Emmy Paul Opolot SACCOs, an abbreviation for “Savings and Credit Co-operatives Society” stands as one of Uganda’s vibrant pillars of sustainable development in the national plan.  Having immersed myself in these Co-operative movement structures for over 17 years, I’ve witnessed firsthand their transformative power within the communities. From fostering financial inclusion to promoting gender equality and bolstering education and healthcare services, Co-operatives have emerged as a catalyst for holistic development across the nation in Uganda. Firstly, let’s acknowledge the diverse landscape within which co-operatives in Uganda operate. These Co-operatives operate in various sectors including farming, transport, Savings and Credit, housing, institutional & multipurpose co-operatives, each catering to specific community needs. These co-operatives serve as vital conduits for providing financial products and services, thereby uplifting members econo...

  The Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Uganda (ICPAU) has introduced a masterclass for holders of Foreign Accountancy Qualifications (FAQs).  The aim is to simplify the full membership enrolment process for FAQ holders so that they can reap the full benefits of being Certified Public Accountants (CPAs). FAQs refer to foreign accountancy qualifications obtained from outside the East African Community. They include but are not limited to the Chartered Management Global Accountant (CGMA), Chartered Accountant (CA) and Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) qualifications.  To qualify for enrolment as full members of ICPAU holders of FAQs are required to study some papers of the Certified Public Accountants (CPA) course, such as Business & Company Law, Public Financial Management, Audit Practice & Assurance and Advanced Taxation. With the masterclass, holders of FAQs will take a one-week class after which they will write examinations and...

Thermal power dominates power generation in the COMESA region, accounting for more than 76 percent with hydro energy at 24 percent. This is out of the total installed power generation capacity estimated at 100,000 megawatts. This was part of the updates presented at the 13 th  Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Regional Association of Energy Regulators for Eastern and Southern Africa (RAERESA taking place in Cairo, Egypt on 15 – 16 May 2024. The overall share of renewable energy has increased from 1 per cent to 6 per cent in the last eight years mainly due to policy and regulatory reforms undertaken in the Member States. Notwithstanding the improvements, the regional energy infrastructure is critically inadequate due to insufficient investment in the energy sector, unreliability, and inefficiency of existing energy infrastructure, as elaborated by COMESA Assistant Secretary General in charge of programmes, Dr Mohamed Kadah, when he addressed the meeting. To tackle these challenges...

More than   600 million   Africans lack access to electricity, and over   900 million   lack access to clean forms of cooking. The consequences for the health, livelihoods, and well-being of both urban and rural populations – especially women and girls – are severe and far-reaching. In 2021,  four out of ten  people without access to clean-cooking facilities lived in Africa, where  nearly four out of five people  still cook their meals over open fires and traditional stoves, using polluting fuels like wood, charcoal, and animal dung. In 2022, about  3.2 million deaths  worldwide were linked to household air pollution caused by cooking fuels and technologies. Since women do most of the cooking, often with children in tow, they suffer the most exposure. In Africa, women and children account for 60% of  early deaths  related to smoke inhalation and indoor air pollution. But the lack of clean-cooking facilities also hurts women and...

  BY PAUL TENTENA IN ADDIS ABABA African countries could leverage their vast renewable energy resources, tropical forests, peatlands, and marine ecosystems to export premium carbon credits, providing a new revenue stream, according to the 2024 Economic Report on Africa by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) launched at the recently concluded tenth Africa Regional Forum on Sustainable Development (ARFSD-10) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The report says, carbon markets could support Africa’s goals of resilience and prosperity, in line with Agenda 2063. They also present a potential path for achieving the Paris Agreement’s climate goals. “A failure, however, to ensure credit additionality, appropriate governance, and high enough prices could lead to perverse market incentives that increase carbon emissions and slow the climate transition on the continent,” says the report. Nassim Oulmane, Acting Director of ECA's Technology Climate Change, and Natura...