Biz Hub Africa

The tumble of the Akasha dynasty began on November 11, 2014, when Kenyan and US agents burst into the palatial homes of the drug lord's sons in Nyali and captured them. The sons of slain drug lord Ibrahim Akasha, Baktash and Ibrahim, were detained alongside Indian felon Vijaygiri "Vicky" Goswami and Gulam Hussein of Pakistan. They spent close to six months seeking freedom on bond and two years fighting extradition to the US. Also detained was Vijay's girlfriend Mamata Kulkarni, a former Bollywood actress. She was freed without charges and returned to India. Events leading to the arrest were dramatic. A day earlier, the entire anti-narcotics unit in the Coast was transferred from the region and the skeleton that remained was not even aware that US agents and Kenyan colleagues from Nairobi were swarming on the Nyali residences to detain the suspects. It became clear within 24 hours that the four men had been arrested on the strengths of an Interpol Red Notice and i...

Kenya’s Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed lost out to Chad’s Moussa Mahamat in the race to become the chair of the African Union Commission in the Round Seven vote. Ms Mohamed fell to a strong onslaught fronted by countries from the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) after seven rounds of voting that saw three other candidates fall by the wayside early in the voting. Amina, 56, lost to Mahamat after heads of state voted in the seventh round. Yesterday’s elections in Addis Ababa, which were delayed for two hours after the opening ceremony, took up to 3pm, eating into the time of the voting for the AUC chairperson that was scheduled to take place at 2pm The African Heads of State and Government were forced to break and resume the voting session at 4pm. The African leaders took their seats at the assembly summit at 4.30pm and the voting started. In the first round, Amina was leading with 16 votes against Chad's candidate who had 14 vote...

President Uhuru Kenyatta in consultation with Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed. Kenya has gone all out in its bid to have Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed elected to head the Africa Union Commission. Pundits in diplomatic circles say the country’s push to have Ms Mohamed at the helm of AU has much to do with the ripple effect of the now collapsed International Criminal Court (ICC) charges against President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto. According to Meru Senator Kiraitu Murungi, Ms Mohamed had proved a strong force in arguing Kenya’s case at the ICC. Because of the ICC case, the Uhuruto government kicked off a strong Pan African agenda and Ms Amina pursued the goal expertly and with major successes. If elected the chairperson of the AU Commission, she will be some sort of a foreign minister for Africa, this will give Kenya good visibility and attract foreign investment,” said Mr Murungi. Murungi said Amina had the best credentials to resto...

The government of Canada has updated the settlement funds requirement for applicants under the  Federal Skilled Worker Class (FSWC) and  Federal Skilled Trades Class (FSTC) . Candidates who receive an Invitation to Apply (ITA) under the  Canadian Experience Class  (CEC) are not required to show settlement funds. In addition, candidates authorized to work in Canada and who have a valid job offer from an employer in Canada are not subject to the settlement funds requirement. Together, these three Canadian immigration programs make up the federal economic programs that receive applications through the  Express Entry  selection system. The increase in the settlement funds is marginal, at just over one percent for each family size. However, it is possible that this increase could affect some candidates’ eligibility. Consequently, all candidates are encouraged to double-check the new figures to ensure that they have the required funds. The new settle...

       Back in 2009 after finishing my high school education I thought that great things were ahead of me, but I was very wrong. I was supposed to at least join a middle level college the following year according to my grades, but also that didn’t happen. Reasons being that the following year my younger brother also cleared his high school with better grades than I did. Seeing this, I was very happy for him that I sacrificed my opportunity to join college just so he could join the aerobic school. He is soon clearing his studies and coming back home, for those several years that he have been away in some part of Europe. Back home here things have not been that good cause dad have been working his black ass off so that my other siblings to have better education. My little brother didn’t knew what took place immediately that he left the country, economy was not doing so great by then, some rich and affluence people pooled strings in the various areas in the lands minis...

  Gene Marks President of The Marks Group, Columnist, Speaker The FAA has proposed new rules for drones and I admit that I’m a little relieved. The rules limit the drones to only 55 pounds. They can’t be flown outside of the line of vision of the operator and can’t go higher than 500 feet (which is about 50 stories, still pretty high) and 100 miles per hour (which is pretty darn fast). Companies like Amazon are upset because they had plans to deliver packages across the country, so they’ll just have to settle with same day delivery on Sundays and generating $4 billion a year from cloud services. They’ll be fine. Me? I run a technology company so my whole life is dealing with stuff that frequently doesn’t work as expected. I can’t even get my computer to restart cleanly three times in a row and then I hear that Amazon wants to fly thousands of drones overhead? Regardless of security issues (which are still very much an issue even with the FAA’s proposed ruling) ...

Nigeria is Africa's largest oil producer, pumping over two million barrels a day. For decades, the country has relied heavily on the oil sector to bring in taxes and foreign exchange. But the drop in the oil price has knocked the value of the local currency - the naira - by nearly 20%. Those immediately affected are ordinary people, and also the new generation of investors who only entered the oil and gas businesses in recent years.

How has the cloud changed your world? Think about it. The cloud has transformed our daily lives, whether it’s for everyday use in business or how we use social media after work. It’s become an increasingly essential technology for driving creativity and collaboration, capable of altering the very fabric of society. As the cloud market grows, it’s crucial to make it even more accessible and comprehensive for startups. Though almost all startups today already use the cloud, the information technology (IT) industry needs to open up the cloud more broadly for startups. Doing so would serve to level the competitive playing field for existing companies and entrepreneurs around the world. Here are three ways we can help startups use the cloud for its maximum potential: 1. Free access to the cloud: Young companies need a strong IT infrastructure to quickly launch their businesses and spend their resources and time on coding, building and scaling their innovations — not ...

     Whether you’ve ever been a consultant before or not, I hope you’ll start thinking of yourself as a consultant in 2015. You are the CEO of your own business . Your career is your business! You can’t let your employer run your career —  not that most employers are sitting around worrying about their employees’ careers, if we are honest. You have to run your own career, and that means knowing what problem you solve for your employers. If you think about it, a full-time employee is just a consultant with only one client. I hope you’ll take the next step in 2015 and get a consulting business card. You can consult at night and on the weekends. It’s a very good thing to do, not just for the extra income but for the mojo boost and the understanding of the market that a part-time consulting business gives you. My daughter was just 19 when she started a music theory coaching business. She was happily surprised to find that people who pay fif...

     Since the onset of the financial crisis back in 2007, the level of debt across the world has continued to grow steadily. According to a McKinsey and Global Institute study , global debt has increased by $57 trillion (40.1 percent) over the past seven years. By the second quarter of 2014, global debt stood at just under $200 trillion. In the fourth quarter of 2007, total debt as a share of GDP stood at 269 percent but that increased to 286 percent by the second quarter of 2014. China in particular has experienced a meteoric rise in its debt levels . During the same seven-year period, real estate and shadow banking propelled Chinese debt nearly four-fold from $7 trillion to $28 trillion .  

   Insurance in our African region is not seen as a very important necessity compared to other places in the world. For the past few decades since this practice was introduced to the African population it has been something for the elite only. It was tailor made for the working class people because they were the only group that was earning regular income and could afford to pay for the annual premiums. Such actions made the insurance companies that were there by then lay a very segregating foundation of this industry. As years followed more and more insurance companies from both local and international spectrum which were joining this market didn't bother to alter these barrios. These aspects later led into a mental state from the low income earners and people who were coming from the informal sector that such things like "Health insurance" policies were not ment for them. A tradition which have led to the stagnant grow of our insurance industry compared to others.  ...

For the first time in the four years that FORBES has been tracking Africa’s richest, Nigeria bests South Africa. At the top yet again is cement tycoon Aliko Dangote of Nigeria, joined on the list of Africa’s 50 Richest by 12 other countrymen.  In comparison South Africa claims 11 spots, down from 14 a year ago. Nigeria is showing its strength, having earned commendations for its efforts to snuff out Ebola in the country, which Dangote helped fund — and despite a recent drop in oil prices. There are four new billionaires on the list: Orji Uzor Kalu of Nigeria, Tony Elumelu of Nigeria,  Theophilus Danjuma of Nigeria and  King Mohammed VI of Morocco. That brings the number of billionaires on the list to 28, up one from 27 last year. Three billionaires on last year’s list are no longer members of the 10-figure club: Vimal Shah of Kenya is off the list, replaced by his father Bhimji Depar Shah at a lower net worth. Abdulsamad Rabiu of Nigeria dropped below...

Procurement planning is the process of deciding what to buy, when and from what source. During the procurement planning process the procurement method is assigned and the expectations for fulfillment of procurement requirements determined. Procurement Planning is important because: 1.  It helps to decide what to buy, when and from what sources. 2.  It allows planners to determine if expectations are realistic; particularly the expectations of the requesting entities, which usually expect their requirements met on short notice and over a shorter period than the application of the corresponding procurement method allows. 3.  It is an opportunity for all stakeholders involved in the processes to meet in order to discuss particular procurement requirements. These stakeholders could be the requesting entity, end users, procurement department, technical experts, and even vendors to give relevant inputs on specific requirements. 4.  It permits the creatio...

The term ‘persistent jobless growth’ refers to the phenomenon in which economies exiting recessions demonstrate economic growth while merely maintaining – or, in some cases, decreasing – their level of employment. The scale and significance of this problem is evident in the high placing of this trend, at two out of the top 10 trends for 2015 in this year’s Outlook in the Global Agenda , an increase even over last year’s report, when persistent structural employment was ranked as the third most concerning trend. The transformations and job displacements associated with technological progress are happening faster, and may even be more dramatic in their impact than anything we’ve experienced before, and the task of providing a meaningful, substantial role for everyone is going to be hugely important. But I believe that this presents us with a huge opportunity to take advantage of current low costs of borrowing and under-utilized labour resources, and embark on large-scale pro...

Economic policies are diverging in the developed world as deflation looms CENTRAL banks in the developed world are no longer acting in tandem. When the financial crisis broke in 2007-08, most banks eased monetary policy significantly. But in late October, two days after the Federal Reserve ceased its third programme of asset purchases, the Bank of Japan stepped up its bond-buying. This divergence seems likely to have a big effect in the medium term, not least in the currency markets. The Bank of Japan said it was expanding its programme of asset purchases (known as quantitative easing, or QE) from ¥60-70 trillion to ¥80 trillion ($700 billion) a year. Its aim is to ward off deflation, a persistent problem over the past 20 years. The Tokyo stockmarket jumped sharply on the news but the biggest economic impact may be on the exchange rate. The yen fell more than 2% against the dollar on the day of the announcement—a big move by currency-market standards—and hit a seven-yea...

Financial folly can come at any age; with each new financial milestone and responsibility comes a whole new way for you to mess it all up. The good news? You're not alone. In fact, each generation has a host of specific mishaps and poor choices that its members commonly make. The best way to avoid these mistakes is to learn what they are.   Top 5 Financial Mistakes People Make in Their 20s   Twenty-somethings are sometimes seen as the most fiscally irresponsible generation (even though some studies show that they're actually better at saving money than their parents). Whether or not individuals in their 20s are careless with their money, you don't have to be. Avoid these five mistakes to be ahead of the financial game early on. Prolonging loan repayment: Don't push your student loans to the side right after college. It's important to get those paid off quickly, so that you can avoid paying extra money in interest over the years. Also, who wants to...

The Implications of a Drier, Hotter and More Crowded Future   Why is this issue important? The Horn of Africa is one of the world's most food-insecure regions. The eight countries – Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan and Uganda – have a combined population of 160 million people, 70 million of whom (or nearly 44 per cent) live in areas prone to extreme food shortages (1). Between 1970 and 2000, these countries were threatened by famine at least once each decade (1). In the future, the impacts of climate change, as well as growing populations and declining per capita agricultural capacity, are expected to further threaten food security¹. As one of the least developed areas in Africa, there is limited capacity to respond to drought or food crises. To prevent humanitarian emergencies, the Horn of Africa needs to strengthen its ability to build long-term resilience and tackle the root causes of ...