Tag Archives: economy

Beijing, China | AFP |  A key gauge of China’s debt has reached its highest level on record, setting off alarm bells of imminent risk to the banking system, a Swiss banking watchdog reported. China’s credit-to-GDP gap reached 30.1 percent in the first quarter of 2016, its highest level ever …

Businessman and author Andrew Rugasira has promised major reforms as he announced his intention to stand for president of what he has described as an ineffective Uganda National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (UNCCI). “The chamber is a far cry from its original mandate. It is institutionally ineffective, and it has …

THE LAST WORD: By Andrew Mwenda Why East African governments need to involve local firms in big infrastructure projects The East African nations of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda are involved in massive investments in infrastructure. They are contracting companies to build roads, railways, bridges, airports, seaports, dams, electricity lines, …

Museveni badly needs $20bn for big projects, can his technocrats get it? President Yoweri Museveni has set goals for his government to construct a number of mega projects requiring about US$20 billion to finance in four years up to 2020. Can he achieve them? The projects include key oil infrastructure, including …

Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP | Zimbabwe announced Thursday it will introduce next month “bond notes” equivalent to the US dollar, sparking fears of a return to the hyperinflation that wrecked the economy several years ago. The country, led by authoritarian President Robert Mugabe, adopted the US dollar and South African …

  COMMENT: By Rajab Kakyama Second-hand clothes – Mwenda shouldn’t be in hurry to displace workers in this sector to become beggars on the fringes of great cities Refer to: “America’s harmful threats” (The Independent Aug.26). Unfortunately, I do agree with Mwenda on principle but disagree with his method of …

Lagos, Nigeria | AFP | Thousands of passengers across Africa have been left stranded after Nigeria’s largest airline said Tuesday it had suspended operations and might remain grounded for several days. Arik Air attributed the “temporary disruption” to “pending approval of aircraft documentation related to insurance renewal… a challenge due …

Civil Society Organisations (CSO) have petitioned the World Bank over its poor portfolio performance in Uganda. CSOs Uganda Debt Network, Anti-Corruption Coalition, Action Aid Uganda and Civil Society Budget Advocacy Group said, the information and data available indicates that as of April 2016, both the World Bank and Uganda are not as …

Abuja, Nigeria | AFP |  Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari on Sunday pledged to reverse the country’s economic slump as his government also tackles endemic corruption and the security threat from Boko Haram Islamists. Recession was officially confirmed in Africa’s most populous nation last month, after a second successive quarter of …

  Lagos, Nigeria | AFP | Traffic jams may clog the city and the beaches look like garbage dumps, but for the Lagos state government developing tourism is now a do or die matter. Nigeria has survived almost exclusively on oil revenues for decades, but the plunge in crude prices …