Business

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP |  South Africa and Kenya vowed Tuesday to “soften borders” between the two regional powerhouses by easing trade and visa barriers, part of ongoing efforts to boost low levels of commerce within Africa. While both nations are economic giants in their respective regions, South Africa’s Jacob …

Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP |  South African Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan will be prosecuted for fraud, officials said Tuesday, in a move that sent the rand tumbling over concerns about political rivalry and the country’s fragile economy. Gordhan, 67, was appointed only late last year to calm panicked investors …

Uganda’s Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERA) has announced new electricity end user tariffs with a reduction, implying that consumers in all categories will pay less in the fourth quarter October to December 2016. According to a statement from ERA, the reduction in the tariffs is as a result of a reduction …

London, United Kingdom | AFP |  Social network giant Facebook on Monday launched new global product Workplace, a platform that it hopes will replace intranet, mailbox and other internal communication tools used by businesses worldwide. It is intended to compete with similar office communication products including Microsoft’s Yammer, Salesforce’s Chatter …

Stockholm, Sweden | AFP |  Two US-based academics won the Nobel Economics Prize on Monday for groundbreaking research on contract theory that has helped design insurance policies, executive pay and even prison management. Oliver Hart, a British-American economist, and Bengt Holmstrom of Finland “have developed contract theory, a comprehensive framework …

Wrangles escalate as Corporation seeks Shs18 bn for new equipment, renovations, staff recruitment Prolonged internal bickering at the Uganda Printing and Publishing Corporation (UPPC) is threatening the revival of the Entebbe- based government’s secret printer that has for many years operated at very low margins. This follows the recruitment of …

President Yoweri Museveni has reassured Ugandans that plans are fully on track for the country to have a national airline. The president said the airline is finally viable, as Ugandans alone are now spending up to $420 million (sh1.4 trillion) annually on travel. “We are now finalizing the modalities,” Museveni told the nation as …

Tokyo, Japan | AFP |  A fifth of the Japanese workforce faces the risk of death from overwork, according to a new government survey into the country’s notoriously strenuous working culture. Hundreds of deaths related to overwork — from strokes, heart attacks and suicide — are reported every year in …

Beijing, China | AFP |  China’s mountain of foreign exchange reserves dropped around $19 billion in September to a five-year low, government data showed, with the central bank spending heavily to defend its currency against capital outflows. The world’s largest currency hoard fell to under $3.17 trillion, the People’s Bank …

Washington, United States | AFP |  World economic leaders gathered in Washington this week to defend globalization, delivering a single message in unison: Protectionism will not save you. But this glosses over the plight of Africa, which is sinking further into poverty despite years of free trade. According to the …