East Africa’s biggest economy is positioning itself to become a regional hub for Islamic finance products. Kenya’s treasury ministry recently unveiled a plan to mainstream Islamic financing as part of an effort to stimulate economic growth, and to help set the sector up as a source of development funding
The semi-autonomous region of Puntland in northeastern Somalia signed a 30-year concession agreement with the Dubai-owned P&O Ports firm in early April, to develop and manage a multipurpose port in Bosaso city. The development of the seaport will take place in two phases, and is expected to cost $336 million.
Twenty-three years ago, members of Rwanda’s Hutu majority tortured, raped, and killed some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in just about 100 days. It was all-consuming—the killers were not just members of the army and government-backed militias, but also neighbors and friends who turned on those they grew up and worked with.
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Kenyan police reportedly killed two unarmed teenagers on Friday afternoon (March 31) on a busy avenue in Nairobi’s Eastleigh business district.
On the night of Mar. 29, suspected herdsmen burned an exclusive safari lodge owned by prominent Italian-born, Kenyan author and conservationist Kuki Gallmann. The attack left the luxurious Mukutan Retreat lodge in northern Kenya in ruins, with the armed men burning down cottages, and shooting at Gallmann’s daughter Sveva as she was trying to get to her nine-month old baby.
Africa is a rapidly urbanizing continent, with almost 50% of its population expected to live in cities by 2035. But a distinct feature of African cities is that they continue to be crowded, with unreliable transport networks and snarling traffic jams.
It’s been 70 days now since Cameroon’s two Anglophone regions have had any access to the internet. The shutdown in the Northwest and Southwest regions was instituted in January following protests against political, linguistic and economic marginalization from the French-dominated government. The blackout is currently stoking regional fear and unrest, crippling a vibrant and growing digital sector, and in effect, creating ‘internet refugees.’
Africa, home to 16% of the world’s population, is the unhappiest continent. The continent featured at the bottom of the list of the World Happiness Report, a survey released this month that ranks global happiness in 155 countries. People in the 44 African countries surveyed faced ‘happiness deficit’ because they scored low in key indicators that lead to well-being and happiness such as freedom, good governance, health provision and income equality.
After six years behind bars, Hosni Mubarak, the former Egyptian president ousted following the Arab Spring protests, has been released. Mubarak was recently acquitted of all the charges that linked him to the death of more than 800 protestors.
Two weeks ago, in Stockholm, Mohammed Omer and four of his friends gathered to talk about the biting drought ravaging their home country, Somalia. Beyond donating funds, the tech developers and social activists came together to discuss ideas to assist those in need of immediate relief. Eventually, they decided to use Ushahidi the Kenyan open source software to develop a platform that would allow responders to connect with drought victims.
Marine Le Pen, the leader of France’s far-right National Front party, will this week visit the Republic of Chad and the 3,500 French troops based out of its capital, N’Djamena. In her presidential campaign, Le Pen has pushed controversial anti-European Union and anti-immigrant stances, claiming globalization and “Islamic fundamentalism” were threatening French values.
Last week (Mar. 16), Somali pirates finally released a Comoros-flagged oil tanker that they seized off the coast of Somalia a few days earlier. They agreed to forego their demand for ransom after learning that a Somali businessman had hired the ship to take oil from Djibouti to the Somali capital, Mogadishu.
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Tunisia has released two postage stamps celebrating internet freedom and commemorating the life of Zouhair Yahyaoui, the online political activist considered a “martyr” for the freedom of internet expression. The country’s postal service released the stamps on the National Day of Internet Freedom (March 13), a day instituted in 2012 by then president Moncef Marzouki in honor of Yahyaoui.
It is still very much a man’s world. In many places across the globe, women are not paid as much or promoted as often as men. In India, women’s participation in the workforce is still shockingly low. And in the United States, despite consistent agitation for equality and higher wages, women may never make up half of the total workforce.
“How long is the shelf life for your fruits since you guys don’t have electricity or somewhere permanent to keep them?”
In the midst of a devastating famine that is threatening nearly half its population, South Sudan has hiked the work permits fees for foreign aid workers by 100-fold.
Maua, Kenya
In 2016, low commodity and oil prices subdued the growth of African economies to their lowest levels in over two decades. The sluggish growth also damaged the place and value of African brands. Last year, the share of African brands among the most admired and valued companies fell from 23% in 2015 to 16% among international brands in 2016, according to Brand Africa 100, the non-profit which values and ranks the continent’s best brands.
On March 1, Somalia’s parliament approved the appointment of new prime minister Hassan Ali Khaire, a political newcomer. The 49-year-old Somali-Norwegian is a former humanitarian worker and oil executive.
Over the last 15 years, mobile phone technology has grown significantly across the world, especially in Africa. Improved infrastructure and high-speed networks have all contributed to the swelling number of subscribers. For developers, this uptick in smartphone users has been a boon for innovation, with the phone now a tool for insurance, health, education, and banking products that allow users to conveniently pay for goods and services.
When refugees and immigrants arrive on the shores of Europe, there’s a website that instructs them on where and how to claim asylum. There’s Gee Cycle, which helps them access smartphones donated by people who have upgraded their devices. The Refugee Info Bus gives them access to Wi-Fi, and Refugees on Rails trains them as software developers to improve their chances on the labor market. There’s also Refugees Welcome, an “Airbnb for refugees,” which connects them to families with spare rooms or houses.
The collapse of the Somali government in 1991 saw the rise of unique political, economic and social outfits, all clambering to fill the void of government institutions. One of them was the emergence of a nonconforming monetary system, controlled by warlords and rogue businessmen, who contracted foreign printers and imported counterfeit money. This left the Somali economy in shambles, largely dependent on dollars for trade, and effectively created a freewheeling “economy without state.”
