Mumbai, India | AFP | Indians rushed to change their bank notes Friday before a deadline to deposit invalid rupee notes closed, as Prime Minister Modi defended his controversial move to reduce cash in use. His shock November 8 announcement rendered 86 percent of India’s currency void, giving customers until …
Read More »Kasaija warns UNRA on $151m Busega-Mpigi expressway
Kasaija warns UNRA against delayed works as government signs a $151million loan for the construction of Busega-Mpigi highway Uganda has signed a sh545billion ($151 million) loan from the African Development Bank (AfDB) to help finance the construction of a four-lane 23.7 kilometer Busega-Mpigi expressway. The AfDB earlier this year approved $245 million …
Read More »US acting as global policeman for financial crimes
Washington, United States | AFP | Handing out multibillion-dollar fines right and left to domestic and foreign financial giants, the United States has taken on the role of the unforgiving global cop of the business world. In stark contrast to the relative inertia of white-collar law enforcement in Europe, Washington …
Read More »Dos Santos daughter cleared to head Angola oil giant
Luanda, Angola | AFP | Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos’s daughter, reportedly Africa’s richest woman, has been cleared to head the national oil company Sonangol, after a court rejected a legal challenge. Isabel dos Santos was put in charge of Sonangol in June in a move some analysts said …
Read More »After Asia, palm oil faces backlash in Africa
Libreville, Gabon | AFP | Its lower cost has made it popular in commercial food production, but after being blamed for deforestation in Asia, palm oil plantations are now getting a similar rap in Africa. The sheer scale of land required is having an impact in Gabon, Cameroon and the …
Read More »‘Profitable’ Washington Post will expand newsroom
Washington, United States | AFP | The Washington Post, purchased three years ago by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, will turn a profit in 2016 and expand its newsroom, defying the downward trend in the newspaper industry. A memo to staff this month from Post publisher Fred Ryan, obtained by …
Read More »Finland is the world’s most smartphone-obsessed country
Smartphone-obsessed Finns rank tops in screen time Helsinki, Finland | AFP | On the crowded morning metro in Helsinki, silence prevails. Everyone is hunched over their smartphone screens, reading the news, checking emails or watching videos. A loud “yeah!” breaks the quiet, along with delighted screech from a toddler whose …
Read More »Uganda’s slow oil and gas infrastructure development
Following the withdraw of the Russian-led consortium RT Global Resources, from the oil refinery construction in July, the government is looking for a new investor to partner in the project by mid-2017 This year marked a decade since the government announced the discovery of commercially viable oil and gas resources …
Read More »Gasabo youth makes fortune from banana stems
Banana is like the tale about seven blind people and the elephant. To some people, it’s food, for a farmer it is fodder for animals, and for alcohol manufacturers; it is a raw material for some gins and beer like Urwagwa. But for one youth in Gasabo district in Kigali …
Read More »VIDEO: Easy transport impacting on Kampala taxis
VIDEO: Uganda has become the latest country in the region to experience the wave of easy taxi services following an influx of several service providers. After the entry of Uber, a technology company that connects riders and drivers at the touch of a button in Uganda early this year, followed …
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