Equi-Life: Transforming Insurance Access in Uganda BUSINESS ANALYSIS | THE INDEPENDENT | Uganda’s insurance sector has demonstrated significant growth in recent years, with gross written premiums increasing from UGX 1.44 trillion in 2022 to UGX 1.6 trillion in 2023, this is according to the Insurance Regulatory Authority of Uganda (IRA) …
Read More »Canada eyes China-style gains in Africa with first-ever strategy
Canada debuts its first-ever strategy for Africa, as Ottawa seeks to diversify markets and blunt geopolitical shocks amid rising trade tensions with Washington. SPECIAL REPORT | BIRD AGENCY | Early in March, Canada unveiled its much-touted Global Africa Strategy in a subdued Toronto event, timed eight days before a cabinet …
Read More »Xi Jinping and his ‘ironclad friends’ from Cambodia
BEIJING | Chang Yuan & Liu Chang – Xinhua | In February 2023, Chinese President Xi Jinping hosted then Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen at the Diaoyutai State Guest House in Beijing, an appointment between the two old friends. Back in early 2020, Hun Sen visited Beijing …
Read More »Tradition, tea, and tomorrow: Xi Jinping’s stories with Vietnam
BEIJING | Shi Xiaomeng – Xinhua | When To Lam made his first visit to China as Vietnam’s top leader in August last year, he started the trip not in Beijing but in the southern metropolis of Guangzhou — a special arrangement Chinese President Xi Jinping later hailed as “quite …
Read More »Great Lakes region’s mineral certification faces scrutiny 14 years on
Experts say the region’s mineral certification mechanism remains patchy, under-implemented, and hindered by political and regulatory gaps ANALYSIS | RONALD MUSOKE | Fourteen years since 12 governments in the Great Lakes region unanimously agreed to create a foolproof international system for certifying and auditing minerals that have been blamed for fomenting …
Read More »Kigali AI Summit backs $60bn fund
Fund aimed at creating 500,000 jobs annually and lifting 11million Africans out of poverty by 2030 ANALYSIS | IAN KATUSIIME | The Global AI Summit for Africa, held in Kigali, Rwanda from April 3–4, galvanized the continent’s ambition to harness the transformative power of artificial intelligence (AI) for sustainable development. A …
Read More »Museveni’s new fears on South Sudan
A region on edge leaves Ugandan leader with limited options ANALYSIS | IAN KATUSIIME | President Yoweri Museveni dashed to South Sudan in early April for a quick meeting with his South Sudan counterpart, Salva Kiir, due to mounting fears of an escalation that could plunge the fragile country back into …
Read More »Healing or Hustle? Smuggled Meds are big draw in Zimbabwe’s hidden markets
Harare, Zimbabwe | Linda Mujuru Global Press Journal Zimbabwe | It’s possible to buy pretty much anything at the market in Hopley, an informal settlement south of this capital city: rat poison, mops — even medicine. That medicine is sold without prescriptions, to buyers who don’t have a diagnosis from a doctor …
Read More »Is AGOA gone with Trump’s new tariffs?
Analysts say the new tariffs suggest that the renewal of the initiative is extremely unlikely COVER STORY | THE INDEPENDENT & AGENCIES | In what has been described as one of the most disruptive moments in trade history, U.S. President Donald Trump on April 02 unleashed sweeping tariffs on nearly all …
Read More »Inside the Zimbabwean ruling party’s Land-for-Votes Scheme
No Title. No Utilities. No Problem. Inside the Zimbabwean Ruling Party’s Land-for-Votes Scheme. Harare, Zimbabwe | Linda Mujuru Global Press Journal Zimbabwe | A political party card, not cash, got Alice Nasiyaya her first plot of land. In 2014, her brother-in-law tipped her off about a group that was distributing residential …
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