Special Articles - Publications about Business & Financial Issues affecting Africa
Rift Valley Railways, the consortium that currently manages and controls the Kenya-Uganda railway, is currently seeking permission to recruit new shareholders as it tries to obtain adequate financing of their plans to upgrade and improve the costly and inefficient railway system.
The railway quickly became strategically and economically vital for Uganda and Kenya as it was the only modern means of transport from the East African coast to the African interior and plateaus. The railway served to transport tourists, locals, as well as goods for trade such as coffee and tea. Over a century later, the railway is still a vital part of the region's economy. The port of Mombasa, where the railway begins, was estimated to have handled more than 14.5 million tons of cargo annually and is expected to handle over 27 million tons of cargo per year by 2030. This demonstrates the significance of the railway in East African trade.
But years of neglect and mismanagement have rendered the railway to be very costly, inefficient, and sometimes dangerous to use. Today, transporting a 40-unit container wagon from Mombasa to the Malaba border post costs around $100,000 by rail. Moreover, it is reported that 1,500 containers cross the Ugandan border every week even though the railway should bring at least 10,000 containers. There are also several safety-related incidents, including one in 1999 when 32 passengers died from the derailment of the train because its brakes failed.
Many different companies have tried to manage the more ...
Thousands of individuals leave their country annually, migrating thousands of miles via East Africa, from the Horn of Africa to South Africa., with money as an incentive. Police officers are often involved in the trade.
In a recent report on smuggling in the region, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) noted that ...
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Africa has had a growing demand for Asia’s manufactured goods and machinery while demand in Asia’s developing economies is growing for Africa’s natural resources and labor-intensive goods. African-Asian foreign direct investment (FDI) flows are growing rapidly, mainly dominated by the flows of Chinese and Indian foreign direct investment and trade in Africa. By mid-2006, the stock of China’s foreign direct investment to Africa ...
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President Jacob Zuma announced on Sunday that South Africa's central bank governor, Tito Mboweni will step down on August 8, 2009 and will be replaced by Gill Marcus, who will take over the post on November 9, 2009.
“The market likes the pragmatism shown with the appointment of Marcus as Mboweni’s ...
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The US$750 million of debt is divided among a senior facility of US$550 million, a junior facility of US$100 million and facilities of US$100 million from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group. The main facility has a final maturity date of December 2015. The facilities include an early-draw ...
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The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime's (UNODC) Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa said, "West Africa has everything that criminals need: resources, a strategic location, weak governance and an endless source of foot soldiers who see few viable alternatives to a life of crime." Criminals exploit the country's chaotic conditions and traffics oil ...
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Human Rights Watch senior researcher Tiseke Kasambala said: "If this is truly the case, then that is indeed a positive statement from the Kimberly Process and was one of the key recommendations from our report we released about a week and a half ago, calling for the de-militarization of the diamond ...
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Maridive has contract with Nigeria, also offers services to Malaysia and indonesia, said Issa Eleish, Chairman of the company in a interview June 30. “The outlook is very positive,” Eleish said. “We increased our efforts, increased our units, took more work and we are trying to tighten our belt.”
The ...
Africa Special Articles features weekly articles focusing on current and relevant business and financial issues affecting Africa.
