Business

Executives urge ‘sleeping giants’ to quickly enact competition law for job creation Kampala, Uganda | JULIUS BUSINGE | There are mega opportunities that mergers and acquisitions are creating within the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA). Statistics from the Zambian-based COMESA Competition Commission (CCC) that oversees transactions in …

  ✳ Discontinue the fragmentation of districts (if possible, consolidate to reduce administrative costs). ✳ Government’s outsized role in the agriculture sector leaves little room for private sector participation. ✳ Technical inefficiencies pervade delivery of subsidized inputs, procured by the NAADS and distributed by the OWC to farmers. ✳ Rather …

  Paris, France | AFP | Facebook on Tuesday announced the expansion of its third-party fact-checking programme to 10 new African countries in partnership with Agence France-Presse and other media. The programme will be available in Ethiopia, Zambia, Somalia and Burkina Faso in partnership with AFP; in Uganda and Tanzania …

Abuja, Nigeria | AFP |  Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday unveiled a record budget plan to lawmakers, ramping up ambitious spending goals for his second term in charge. The draft budget increased more than 13 percent from last year at 10.33 trillion naira — around $33.8 billion (30.8 billion …

Seoul, South Korea | AFP | Samsung Electronics said on Tuesday it expected operating profits to drop more than 50 percent in the third quarter as it struggles with a long-running slump in the global chip market. Operating profit for July to September was forecast to reach 7.7 trillion won ($6.4 …

Growing middle class, economy attracts investments in the hotel industry Kampala, Uganda | ISAAC KHISA | Nearly six years ago, 18 countries in Africa did not have any global branded hotel as prospective owners and operators did not see business opportunities.  But this has now reduced to only five countries …

  Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Bank of Uganda has cut interest rates, a move expected to boost businesses’ borrowing and consequently lift growth. BoU Governor, Emmanuel Tumusiime-Mutebile announced on Monday that he was cutting the Central Bank Rate (CBR), which signals the direction of interest rates, from 10% …

  Equity’s refresh geared towards leveraging on the brand’s global capability, strong heritage, internal talent assembly and agile business model to scale across demographic segments in Africa Nairobi, Kenya | THE INDEPENDENT |  Equity Group Holdings Plc has launched a new brand identity that reflects a streamlined financial services provider positioned as …

On Aug.29, Tullow’s proposed sale and purchase agreement stipulating the US$900 million farm down to its JV Partners, Total and CNOOC, was terminated. This news was followed a week later, on Sept. 05, with Total’s suspension of technical activities on its pipeline project—the EACOP. Pierre Jessua, the General Manager of …

Kanungu, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT |  Traders and taxi drivers are demanding for full time deployment of security operatives along Kanungu-Hamurwa road to stem the escalating cases of Highway robbery. Kanungu-Hamurwa road connects Kanungu, Rubanda and Kabale districts. The 50 kilometer road stretch is mostly used by traders to transport their …