Author: Editorial Staff

REDUCING a reliance on bulk black tea is a key objective for Kenya as it looks to boost revenue from one of its flagship agricultural sectors. Kenya is the world’s leading exporter of black tea, which accounts for 95 percent of the country’s overall tea production, making it one of its main agricultural exports. Tea exports generated earnings of $1.23bn in 2015, a 23 percent increase from the previous year. The jump in revenue was the result of higher prices due in large part to a weaker harvest, with 2015 crop yields at 399.2m kg, a 10 percent year-on-year decrease,…

NIGERIAN vice-president Yemi Osinbajo has accused the previous administration of stealing about $15bn of public money through fraudulent arms deals. Osinbajo said the huge sum was ‘lost… to fraudulent and corrupt practices in… security equipment spending during the last administration,’ according to a recent statement released by his office. The figure is more than half of Nigeria’s current foreign exchange reserves of $27bn, he said late April in a speech in Ibadan. President Muhammadu Buhari took office in May last year vowing to crack down on endemic corruption and impunity in the government, and has set about bringing offenders to…

PAYPAL and First National Bank (FNB) are to extend the partnership between the companies to offer PayPal Withdraw Service, previously available only in South Africa, in Botswana. This service will allow, for the first time ever, residents in Botswana to withdraw money directly from their PayPal accounts to their qualifying FNB bank account. This service gives local businesses the flexibility they need to not only accept PayPal payments but also settle locally – opening up the opportunity to do business on a global level and have access to  PayPal’s 183 million active customer accounts in 203 countries and markets. Commenting…

MTN Mobile Money has become the fastest growing method of receiving WorldRemit international money transfers in Ghana. The number of transfers received on mobile accounts is growing by 13 percent per month on average, as Ghanaians abroad discover the convenience of sending instantly to MTN Mobile Money. Countries sending the most money to Ghana include the United Kingdom, USA and Australia. WorldRemit is the global leader in international transfers to Mobile Money, with connections to 32 services in 24 countries across Europe, Africa and Asia. The increased use of Mobile Money in remittances is also driving a new phenomenon -…

MTN Ghana has contracted Ericsson to deploy an LTE network in the region around the country’s capital Accra – a move the infrastructure vendor said would cover some 16 million subscribers. The operator is rolling out the new network in the Greater Accra Region as it moves to offer subscribers in the area high-speed mobile broadband access. The Greater Accra Region is the smallest of the country’s 10 administrative regions in terms of area, but it is the second most heavily populated having accounted for 15.4 per cent of Ghana’s total population in 2010, information from the Ghanaian government reveals.…

UPTAKE of device-based mobile money services in sub-Saharan Africa is being hindered by barriers including a lack of awareness of what’s on offer, and a want of understanding of the benefits of mobile money, says global communications giant, Ericsson. While a survey conducted in five of the region’s major markets revealed that high numbers of people in sub-Saharan Africa are unbanked – meaning they have no access to regular bank accounts – and that most of those consumers access mobile money services via an agent, the research showed that less than a quarter regularly access such services on a mobile…

A NEW mobile operator, ntel, commenced 4G LTE services in Lagos and Abuja in early April, increasing competition in the 170 million-person telecoms market. Operating on the 900-MHz and 1800-MHz bands, ntel is looking to challenge the four major telecoms operators in Nigeria – South Africa’s MTN, India’s Bharti Airtel, UAE’s Etisalat and local Globacom – with the promise of internet speeds of up to 230 Mbps. Ntel first announced it would be entering the market in the autumn of 2015, beginning with coverage in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt, and eventually spreading out to smaller cities and towns across…

THE ministry of mines, industry and energy of Equatorial Guinea has signed an agreement with the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT Polytechnic) to provide comprehensive technical training to Equatorial Guinea nationals in Calgary, Alberta, in Canada. The two-year programme, which will provide the students with core and specialised oil and gas knowledge, is part of the government’s drive to promote workforce nationalisation in the industry. SAIT’s International Workforce Development and Workforce Nationalisation Training have been successful in transferring technology to Africa countries, boosting national capacity and promoting local content. The first partnership between SAIT and Equatorial Guinea saw the…

FRENCH multinational electric utility company Engie, as leader of  a consortium with South African partners, has signed a 20-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Eskom – South Africa’s state owned power utility – to build a concentrated solar park in the Northern Cape Province, 600 km South-West of the national capital Pretoria. Expected to be operational in the second half of 2018, Kathu Solar Park is a 100 MW greenfield Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) project with parabolic trough technology and equipped with a molten salt storage system that allows 4.5 hours of thermal energy storage and thus limits the intermittent…

A SOUTH African solar power plant has set a new African record for the continuous, round the clock supply of electricity. Within the first month of commercial operation, the newly inaugurated 50MW Bokpoort Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plant built and operated by ACWA Power produced electricity for a continuous period of 161 hours, equivalent to almost seven days. Located in Groblershoop, within the Kheis Municipality in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa, the project’s optimised performance was boosted by its 1300MWh molten salt energy storage facility which provides  9.3 hours of thermal storage, the highest on the African continent.…