Latest news with #HerewardHolland
The Star
5 days ago
- Business
- The Star
World Bank to resume Uganda funding after halt over anti-LGBT law
KAMPALA (Reuters) -The World Bank said on Thursday it would resume funding to Uganda, nearly two years after the global lender suspended new financing to the country in response to an anti-LGBT law that imposes penalties including death and life imprisonment. The bank halted funding to the East African country in August 2023 after Uganda's parliament passed the Anti-Homosexuality Act (AHA), saying the law contradicted its values. The bank had worked with Ugandan authorities to put in place strong measures to mitigate against potential harm from the law, a World Bank spokesperson told Reuters via email. "We have now determined the mitigation measures rolled out over the last several months in all ongoing projects in Uganda to be satisfactory," said the spokesperson, who asked not to be named. "Consequently, the Bank has prepared three new projects in sectors with significant development needs – social protection, education, and forced displacement/refugees – which have been approved by the Board." The World Bank is one of Uganda's biggest sources of external financing, especially in infrastructure construction in the transport sector. AHA mandates the death penalty for so-called "aggravated homosexuality" which includes among other categories having same-sex relations with a disabled person or where gay sex results in transmission of a terminal illness to a victim. It also decrees a 20-year sentence for "promoting" homosexuality. (Reporting by Elias Biryabarema. Editing by Hereward Holland and Mark Potter)
Time of India
09-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Safaricom sees earnings surge as Ethiopia startup losses fall
By Hereward Holland NAIROBI: Kenyan telecoms firm Safaricom said on Friday that its earnings could surge as much as 50% this financial year as it projected that losses in key expansion market Ethiopia would fall steeply. Safaricom, partly owned by South Africa's Vodacom and Britain's Vodafone, launched in Ethiopia in 2022 as the government there opened up the tightly-controlled economy to foreign competition. The company has had a bumpy ride in Ethiopia due to security, inflation and currency challenges, but it remains bullish that Africa's second most-populous nation will power future growth. Chief Executive Officer Peter Ndegwa told a results presentation that the company was expecting group earnings before interest and taxes of 144 billion to 150 billion Kenyan shillings ($1.12 billion-$1.16 billion) in the year to the end of March 2026, excluding the hyper-inflationary impact from its Ethiopian business. That compares with EBIT of 97.1 billion shillings in the year to end-March 2025 without the hyper-inflationary impact. "We are pleased with our performance in FY25 despite the various challenges that faced the operating environment including economic disruptions, slowdown in GDP growth and impact of foreign exchange regime reforms in Ethiopia," Safaricom said in a statement. Group service revenue grew more than 10% year-on-year to 371.4 billion shillings last financial year, while customer numbers increased 16% to 57.1 million. Safaricom's Kenya business continued to be the main profit driver last year, while the company invested in rolling out operations in Ethiopia. This year, the company expects negative EBIT of between 23 billion and 26 billion shillings in Ethiopia, compared to negative EBIT of about 61 billion last year. "The exceptional performance in our Kenya business... offset the foreign exchange corrections in Ethiopia," Ndegwa said. Safaricom's board has proposed a final dividend of 0.65 shillings per ordinary share, making the total dividend for 2024-2025 similar to the previous year.
Reuters
06-05-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Kenyan shilling steady, supported by remittances
Kenya shilling coins and notes are pictured inside a cashier's booth at a forex exchange bureau in Kenya's capital Nairobi, April 20, 2016. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya/File photo Purchase Licensing Rights , opens new tab NAIROBI, May 6 (Reuters) - The Kenyan shilling was steady on Tuesday, supported by remittances and muted foreign-currency demand, traders said. As of 0935 GMT the shilling was trading at 129.00/50 to the U.S. currency, the same level as at the close of Monday's session, London Stock Exchange Group data showed. The Reuters Tariff Watch newsletter is your daily guide to the latest global trade and tariff news. Sign up here. Reporting by Hereward Holland; Editing by Alexander Winning Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. , opens new tab Share X Facebook Linkedin Email Link Purchase Licensing Rights
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Yahoo
Kenya's ant-smuggler bust exposes lucrative underground trade
By Hereward Holland and Monicah Mwangi NAIROBI (Reuters) -Kenyan police who raided a national park guesthouse earlier this month aimed not to bust elephant tusk or rhino horn poachers but a more esoteric ring trading a much smaller, more lucrative item by weight - queen ants. Two Belgian teenagers were arrested for wildlife trafficking at Jane Guesthouse in Naivasha on the edge of Hell's Gate National Park. They, along with a Vietnamese man and a Kenyan national also accused of ant trafficking, pleaded guilty and will be sentenced on May 7, a magistrate said on Wednesday. Kenyan prosecutors have valued the seizures of queens taken from giant African harvester ant colonies at about 1.2 million Kenyan shillings ($9,300). Depending on the number and variety of each species found, however, Reuters calculated the haul would have been worth as much as $1 million if it had reached European shores. "It's like cocaine," said Dino Martins, director of the Turkana Basin Institute and one of Kenya's leading insect experts. "The price of cocaine in Colombia versus getting a kilogram in the European market is such a big value addition, that's why people do it." Based on the average cost of giant African harvester ants at six retailers in Britain, each of the roughly 5,440 queens seized at Nairobi airport according to court documents is worth around £175 ($233). Ant aficionados pay large sums to maintain ant colonies in large transparent vessels known as formicariums, which provide insights into their intricate social structures and behaviours. But queen ants are vital for any colony as they are the only ones capable of laying eggs that grow into worker, soldier and future queen ants, meaning that trafficking can jeopardise colonies critical to Kenya's wildlife ecosystem. MASS DEATH IN TRANSIT Martins said the retail value of the bug bust should be tempered by the expectation that as many as 90% of them would likely have died in transit by traffickers to Europe and Asia from disease, bacteria and freezing temperatures. Nonetheless, the record seizures have raised questions about whether the attempted heist was a one-off by amateur enthusiasts, or a wider network of wildlife traffickers exploring new products and markets. Ant exports are permitted from Kenya with licenses, though the regulations are difficult to navigate, Martins said. "We are not criminals, we are 18 years old, we are naive, and I just want to go home to start my life," one of the Belgian defendants, David Lornoy, said at the trial last week. The Kenya Wildlife Service, however, said the case signals a landmark shift in biopiracy trends from iconic large mammals to lesser-known species that are no less ecologically critical. "This case represents far more than insect smuggling," said Erustus Kanga, director general of KWS. "We're seeing organised crime syndicates diversify from traditional ivory poaching to target our entire biodiversity - from medicinal plants, insects to micro-organisms," he said in a statement. Samuel Mutua, a wildlife crime expert at the International Fund for Animal Welfare, said the ant case qualifies as organised crime. "Irrespective of their age, they were able to get a lot of ants," he said. For Martins, the furore over the case overlooks the greater threat to insects in East Africa posed by pesticides and habitat destruction that kill millions of ants every day. Harvester ants, whose industriousness is mentioned by King Solomon in the Bible, keep Kenya's iconic Rift Valley healthy by spreading and mixing grass seeds across the landscape, Martins said. "If we were to lose all the elephants in Africa, we would be devastated, but the grassland would continue. If we were to lose all the harvester ants and termites, the savannah would collapse." ($1 = 0.7472 pounds)
Zawya
10-04-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Somalia signs $306.5mln debt relief deal with Arab Monetary Fund
MOGADISHU: Somalia has signed a $306.5 million debt relief deal with the Arab Monetary Fund (AMF), in what the government in Mogadishu called a critical milestone in its economic reform programme. The Horn of Africa country's government is trying to revive its economy after it was battered by decades of civil war. It has also suffered from severe droughts, floods, and a locust infestation in recent years. Last year, it secured the cancellation of 99% of the debt Somalia owed to members of the Paris Club of creditor nations, a vital step in the war-scarred country's efforts to rejoin the international financial system. The deal with Abu Dhabi-based AMF, which fosters financial stability and economic development in Arab member states, involves the restructuring of the debt owed by Somalia to the fund, the AMF said in a statement, without providing more details. Somalia's Finance Minister Bihi Egeh said the agreement was crucial to the country's debt relief efforts and "fundamental to re-engagement with the fund." The signing, which took place in Kuwait on Wednesday, reflected "growing international confidence in Somalia's economic trajectory and reform efforts," Somalia's state news agency SONNA reported. (Reporting by Hereward Holland; Editing by Duncan Miriri and Jamie Freed)
