Move would force citizens, companies, and policymakers to bring all Africans into the financial sector By Carl Manlan India has lately been pursuing an ambitious goal: a cashless economy. Despite early missteps and frustrations, it will turn out to be a change for the better for the country’s 1.31 billion …
Read More »COMMENT: Insights into Afrobarometer polling
Asserting that ordinary people cannot form valid opinions on issues of democracy or governance is over-stated By Francis Kibirige The Independent magazine Issue Number 469 of May 12 – 18 carried an article titled `Afrobarometer: Right poll, wrong people.’ This article raised two major issues relating to public opinion polling. …
Read More »COMMENT: Bitter truth about sugar
COMMENT: Uganda’s claim to have surplus sugar is mistaken and obscures a bigger regional problem Uganda and Kenya are learning a bitter truth about ordinary added sugar used in homes, industries, and service facilities. Just six months ago in September 2016, the two countries were fighting a trade war over …
Read More »COMMENT: Wages of wage fear
Stagnant wages cause household demand to remain depressed, thereby deterring investments By Bill Emmott If all else fails, try the previously unthinkable. It is not a bad principle for economic policy in the best of times. Today, it may be just what is needed: many Western countries – certainly the …
Read More »COMMENT: Reducing speed to save lives
Someone hit by a vehicle traveling at 80kms has a three times higher risk of dying than at 50Kms By Margaret Chan and Michael Bloomberg We can save so many lives around the world if we just slow down. Each year, more than 1.25 million people – many of them …
Read More »COMMENT: Right to reappoint Kayihura
Police boss’s reappointment and approval was inevitable based on his successes By David Serumaga Last week, President Yoweri Museveni reappointed Gen. Kale Kayihura as the Inspector General of Police. He has finally been approved by parliament. However, it seems some leaders had not noticed Kayihura’s achievements and had vowed block …
Read More »BYANYIMA: A giant retires
What Uganda’s current and future politicians can learn from the life and character of Mzee Byanyima Although I knew he was old (at 96) and was aware of his declining health I was still shocked when I heard the news of the death of Mzee Boniface Byanyima. I have …
Read More »The inevitability of the inevitable as the African Union robs Africa of the top UNWTO job
AATC News by Prof. Wolfgang H. Thome The UNWTO Elections There is no easy way to say this but someone has to say it in a way that everyone can understand what just went down in Madrid, Spain where the Executive Committee of the UN World Tourism Organization just voted for …
Read More »COMMENT: Grand strategy for Trump?
Trump’s intuitive use of game theory is risky with actors showing zero interest in cooperation By Koichi Hamada As with any human interaction, international relations, whether economic or political, is a combination of cooperation and competition. The “cooperation” part benefits all involved, whether by sustaining world peace or boosting growth …
Read More »COMMENT: Fixing fixed-investment
Governments should make it harder for companies buying back shares without paying dividends By Jim O’Neill Back in February, I noted that the global economy at the end of 2016 was in a stronger cyclical position than most people had expected, given the political upheavals of the previous 12 months. …
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