A scarcity of hard cash has made e-payments the new norm in Nigeria. So much so that the value of digital transactions has grown larger than the 2022 GDP of South Africa, Africa’s third-largest economy. SPECIAL REPORT | BIRD AGENCY | When the Nigerian Central Bank introduced newly designed currency …
Read More »Africa’s 10 busiest airports based on total passenger traffic
SPECIAL REPORT | BIRD AGENCY |Â Â Air travel in Africa is projected to surpass pre-pandemic levels for the first time in 2024. From Cairo, with the second-oldest airport in Africa, to Johannesburg, host to the only airport in Africa with direct flights to six continents, here is a list of Africa’s …
Read More »FROM THE ARCHIVES: The Novichok Archipelago
 Alexei Navalny in conversation with Tikhon Dzyadko BERLIN/MOSCOW – Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who has died in an arctic penal colony, was the head of the Anti-Corruption Foundation in Moscow. In August 2020, he was transported from Siberia to Berlin for treatment of a severe illness that doctors and …
Read More »Mother of all battles for African TV viewers
French media giant Canal+ is on the acquisition trail in Africa, targeting local industry leader MultiChoice. The South African heavyweight itself plans to invest US$89 million in its streaming flagship, Showmax, to stay ahead of Netflix in Africa SPECIAL REPORT | BIRD AGENCY |Â A major shake-up in the African streaming …
Read More »France talks big on its future with Uganda
Amb. Sticker says France is determined to strengthen its cooperation with east African country Kampala, Uganda | RONALD MUSOKE | France intends to shore-up its enduring cooperation with Uganda by investing more millions of Euros into the country’s energy and water and sanitation sectors this year, according to Xavier Sticker, the …
Read More »HALEU: A new fuel for small nuclear power plants that Uganda is targeting
ANALYSIS | THE INDEPENDENT |  High Assay Low Enriched Uranium (HALEU) is gaining popularity in some of the developed countries as a less costly fuel for putting up nuclear power plants. The current fleet of nuclear reactors runs primarily on uranium fuel enriched up to 5% uranium-235 (U-235). This fuel which comes …
Read More »Why LGBT+ campaigners want Speaker Anita Among banned from visiting the UK
The US revoked Among’s visa over the Anti-homosexuality law Kampala, Uganda | RONALD MUSOKE | Gay rights activists in the UK and Uganda are urging the British government not to grant a visa to Anita Annet Among, the Speaker of Parliament, which is supposed to enable her travel to the U.K …
Read More »From MK Movement to the Patriotic League
What next for Gen. Muhoozi 2026? COVER STORY | THE INDEPENDENT | The era of the MK Movement; the mass of amorphous activities proclaiming President Yoweri Museveni’s son, Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba aka MK to be the deserving successor to his father appears to have ended. At an event in the Kampala …
Read More »Why Blinken’s latest Mideast visit is failing to ease regional turmoil
CAIRO | Xinhua |Â At the end of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s fifth visit to the Middle East since the outbreak of the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict, many in the region are explicit that the U.S. top diplomat has hardly made any progress de-escalating tensions there. Like its predecessors, …
Read More »Africa’s 10 largest gold producers
African states are riding the wave of a gold rush, with global prices stabilising and mining technologies advancing. Here are the continent’s ten largest gold-producing powerhouses per tonnage (t), according to the World Gold Council’s 2022 stats. 1. Ghana – 127th Known as the “Gold Coast”, Ghana is Africa’s largest …
Read More »