Uganda sees economy growing at least 7% in 2025/26 fiscal year
KAMPALA, June 12 (Reuters) - Uganda's economy will grow at least 7% in the fiscal year starting in July, Finance Minister Matia Kasaija said on Thursday in a budget speech.
Uganda is poised to start pumping crude oil next year, and the International Monetary Fund predicts revenues from crude sales could lift its economic growth rate into double digits.
The World Bank has said it is resuming funding to Uganda, nearly two years after the global lender suspended new financing in response to an anti-LGBT law that imposes penalties including death and life imprisonment.
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The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Letting banks loose is back on the agenda as UK politicians chase growth at any cost
As the old ways of turning a profit become more difficult – from assembling cars to selling soap powder – politicians of all stripes want the City to inject some dynamism into the economy. From Labour to Reform, the siren call of London's financial district is strong. If only, they ask, the wheels of the banking industry could be cranked to spin faster, surely much more money could be generated and we would all be rich. While Rachel Reeves boasted of the huge benefit to economic growth from public investments in rail and renewable energy as central pillars of the government's spending review, in truth it is not enough to propel the economy forward. To generate the kind of income that will pay for the next 30 years of an ageing society, plans to link Manchester and Liverpool by a marginally faster and more reliable train, though good in itself, is not the answer. The Treasury knows it is just an upgrade to existing services and will deliver only incremental returns. To turbocharge growth, the chancellor wants private money to take the lead, partnering government to share the burden of building bridges and tunnels and spurring investments in whizzy new ventures. And as a start, the Treasury wants the shackles taken off the bankers so they can become more inventive in the way they make money, taking risks that were previously frowned upon, if not banned, and rewarding themselves accordingly. It is 18 years since Northern Rock's high-risk mortgage lending began to unravel and 17 years since Lehman Brothers went bust. Long enough, it seems, for memories to fade, and with them concerns about the damaging consequences of light-touch regulation. That said, it's easy to see why the temptation to let the banks loose is back on the agenda. UK banks are among the most profitable in Europe and London plays host to the largest number of foreign banks. The UK's unicorn businesses – those privately held startup companies worth more than £1bn – rank in number behind only the US, India and China. Some startups are considered to be at the forefront of the financial technology boom, including Revolut and Monzo. What could be better for Britain than to leverage a fintech industry that already has a worldwide reputation? Revolut has championed handling funds invested in cryptocurrencies, and for this service, and its banking and wealth management, it has emerged as the most successful European fintech of the past decade. It was valued at $45bn last year. And there is no stopping the chief executive, co-founder and 25% owner, Nikolay Storonsky. He plans to expand into mortgages and consumer lending to challenge the major lenders, as well as growing in the US. Monzo is the digital bank best known for its coral pink debit cards. After 10 years, the company announced its first profit last year, of £15.4m, after more than doubling revenues to almost £900m. Reeves also wants pension funds to take more risks, which is a boon for an asset management industry that has fallen out of favour with the public in recent years due to its high charges and failure to deliver returns that better passive investments. Last week, the House of Lords financial services regulation committee gave Labour's mission a boost. It attacked the main City watchdogs – the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority – for having 'a deeply entrenched culture of risk aversion'. In a report that the Treasury will have privately welcomed, the committee said the regulators were partly to blame for holding back economic growth. If the FCA and PRA, which have already pledged to reduce the paperwork and oversight of the City, become more trusting of its ability to manage risk, there is likely to be a sugar rush of activity, much as there was during the noughties. Labour has helped get the ball rolling by lifting the bankers' bonus cap, to allow publicly listed banks to join the bonanza of rewards enjoyed by executives in Revolut and Monzo. Monzo may have made only £15.4m profit but this modest sum was not to be re-invested. It was enough to warrant big payouts, including a £12m bag of cash and shares that Reuters said most likely went to the chief executive, TS Anil. Underscoring how light-touch regulation is matched by executive pay bonanzas, a report last month by the jobs website eFinancialCareers found that bonuses in the UK's investment banks had risen by 26% year on year, beating their equivalents in Asia, Europe and the US. The average bonus payout for a City executive was about £110,000. And the trickle-down effect works in finance. At junior levels, bonuses increased by as much as 133%, the survey found. Labour's backbench MPs know how this play ends. After all the partying and profit-making, there will be a severe hangover. And when that happens, the taxpayer is asked to save the day. Somehow, the profits of the financial sector belong to the bosses and the losses belong to the people.
Reuters
2 hours ago
- Reuters
Kenyan blogger's wife seeks answers after his death in police custody
NAIROBI June 14 (Reuters) - When the policemen came for Albert Ojwang - the Kenyan blogger whose death in custody sparked protests this week and prompted a rare acknowledgement of police brutality by the president - his wife initially thought he would be safe. Unlike the dozens of political activists abducted by suspected security agents over the last year, the 31-year-old schoolteacher was taken to a police station and officers shared their phone numbers with his family. "When they came, they were so soft. They were not violent," said Nevnine Onyango, who was present when the officers arrived, accusing her husband of insulting their "boss". "So that is what gave me even more confidence." The next morning, a family member called with the news that Ojwang, the father of their three-year-old son, was dead. In the week since, the blogger's death has become a lightning rod in a nation just one year removed from mass youth-led protests that were fuelled, in part, by disgust at pervasive police violence. Hundreds protested in the capital Nairobi this week, with vehicles set ablaze and the police firing teargas. Demonstrators cited Ojwang's death as evidence that nothing had changed one year after more than 60 people were killed in demonstrations initially sparked by proposed tax hikes. Ojwang was arrested in Homa Bay, in western Kenya, as part of an investigation triggered by a formal complaint from the deputy chief of the national police force, Eliud Lagat, according to the Independent Policing Oversight Authority, Kenya's government-funded police watchdog. Lagat had stated he had been the target of alleged false and malicious information published on X, IPOA said. Kenya's police chief initially implied that Ojwang had died by suicide but later apologised after an autopsy found that his wounds - including a head injury, neck compression and soft tissue damage - pointed to assault as the cause of death. President William Ruto said on Wednesday that Ojwang had died "at the hands of the police", which he said was "heartbreaking and unacceptable". Three people have so far been arrested in the case: the policeman in charge of the police station in Nairobi where Ojwang was found dead, a police constable and a closed-circuit television technician at the station. Reuters was not able to reach Lagat for comment, and a police spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. In the past, the police have called examples of abuse isolated incidents. It is not clear what Ojwang posted that got the attention of the police. His social media accounts no longer appear to be active. According to IPOA, which is investigating his death, Lagat's complaint triggered a probe that led to the arrest of another blogger. Interrogations of that blogger identified Ojwang as a person of interest, IPOA said. And so, last Saturday at lunchtime, police officers arrived at Ojwang's house on motorcycles and told him "there are some remarks that he had made about their boss, that the boss is corrupt", his wife Onyango said. They did not identify their boss. They first took Ojwang to the local police station before telling his family they would transfer him to Nairobi, nearly 300 km (185 miles) away, she said. She last heard from him at around 9 p.m. (1800 GMT) the Saturday of his arrest when he called her from Nairobi's Central Police Station. She said he sounded worried and asked if she would be able to come to Nairobi. Onyango is now hoping for answers - and accountability - from IPOA's investigation. "We always see these things on television, and it actually reached my door," she said of police abuses. "These people are supposed to protect us. They're not supposed to harm us."
BBC News
5 hours ago
- BBC News
M23 summit: UN tight-lipped on outcome of talks with Congolese rebels
The head of the UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo has held talks with Rwanda-backed rebels about protecting civilians in areas under their control in the Keita, the UN secretary general's special representative, said the rebels spoke of wanting a peaceful solution to the crisis, which escalated in January with their capture of the major city of said she had brought "a spirit of listening and exchange" to the discussions in Goma on more detail has been released about any progress made at the summit. But in a short written statement, Ms Kieta said it formed part of ongoing "joint efforts begun several months ago for the benefit of the population", and that it came at a critical released from the meeting showed Ms Keita boarding a helicopter towards the eastern warzone for the summit, and also of her team sat across from leaders of the Congo River Alliance - which includes the M23 rebel were not the UN-led first talks since the takeover of Goma, but they are the highest this year the UN peacekeeping force, known as Monusco, was unable to stop the rebel group advancing and seizing large swathes of territory from the Congolese army. M23 rebels attacked some Monusco the start of this year, the M23 has made major advances in the mineral-rich east, including taking Goma in conflict has led to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of civilians in the last few months, with thousands of people in the cities of Goma and Kivumu remain closed and livelihoods have been disrupted, with many civil servants and other workers not receiving their Friday, almost 250 South African soldiers who were deployed to the Democratic Republic of Congo arrived back home as the first part of a phased withdrawal from the eastern had been part of a force sent by the southern African bloc (Sadc) to assist the Congolese army, but 20 of its soldiers were later killed during an M23 advance which prompted the decision to a meeting on Saturday, Monusco said its leader Ms Keita met a top Sadc commander in a show of mutual appreciation for the "support and solidarity" they had shown each other "in these recent, difficult months". Additional reporting by Emery Makumeno, Samba Cyzuzo and Cecilia Macaulay You may also be interested in: What's the fighting in DR Congo all about?Ex-DR Congo president returns from self-imposed exile, party saysRare antelope captured on camera as experts say under 100 exist Go to for more news from the African us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica
