Farmers Commodity exchange takes shape.

The Cabinet has approved new laws setting up a market for trading of commodities and currencies. This paves the way for opening of an exchange that could give farmers access to a bigger market for their produce.
The Capital Markets Authority (CMA) in April published draft regulations for setting up a futures exchange, which will now be published into law incorporating input from stakeholders.

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Obama to spend 8 billion shillings on Africa visit.

There is growing outrage in the USA over the reportedly massive $60-$100 million price tag of president Obama's upcoming trip to Africa. With expenses like 24-hour fighter jets over the president's airspace and floating Navy trauma hospitals off the coast, there are calls for the White House to cancel the trip. This is the first visit of President Obama to Africa since 2009. He will be visiting four African

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Best and Worst careers to take a loan for.

Many university graduates dream of the day they’ll finally clear their Helb loans. Some students enrolled in the parallel degree program also take loans to finance their studies. So, which careers are the best, careers that promise a return on your investment? Which careers are the worst in which to take a loan against? Here are some of the careers we sampled. (Disclaimer: This is merely an opinion and not expert advice).

Best:

Advertising and marketing.
College grads going into advertising and marketing can pay off their loans in a few years. While not all marketing graduates will get top level pay, marketing majors can start working right after they’re done

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China to build Africa’s largest Hydro Power Plant in DR Congo.

The contours of a new set of agreements to build the long-shelved 40,000MW Grand Inga dam have emerged.
More than 90 politicians, businesspeople and international financiers gathered in Paris, the French capital to discuss the African infrastructure deal of the century in Paris on 17 May.

Finance and power ministers from several African countries, including South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo, sat down with the African Development Bank and World Bank, alongside lawyers, bankers and the representatives of several business consortia.

Key amongst those are China's Sinohydro and the China Three Gorges corporation, which built the world's largest hydropower project across the Yangtze river, first delivering 22,500MW in 2008.

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Safaricom aims to integrate Wi-Fi on Matatus.

Safaricom is on an all out push to get the matatus plying the Nairobi route to have wireless internet- Wi-Fi. The company sees the endless traffic jams in the city’s road as an opportunity for commuters to surf free as they get distracted from the traffic jam. However, security precautions still remain, as

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Saudi Arabia plans to block WhatsApp within weeks.

Saudi Arabia plans to block Internet-based communication tool WhatsApp within weeks if the U.S.-based firm fails to comply with requirements set by the kingdom's telecom regulator.

The country’s telecom regulatory body argues that it is hard for the state to monitor WhatsApp, and it also deprives telecom companies of revenue from international calls and texts.

The kingdom appears to be making a greater push for more control over cyberspace as Internet and smart phone usage soars, in part due to strict laws that limit opportunities for people to mix in person.

WhatsApp has seen an unprecedented expansion since its launch four years ago, and is eating into the

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Safaricom overtakes EABL as the most valuable company in East Africa.

East African Breweries Limited (EABL) has lost its place as the NSE’s most valuable firm to Safaricom, following successive weeks of share price decline.

EABL, whose share was trading at Sh351 Thursday having opened at Sh358, now has a market capitalisation of Sh278 billion compared to Safaricom’s Sh294 billion.
Safaricom was trading at Sh7.35 per share Thursday, having remained above the Sh7 per share since the beginning of May.
Analysts say the EABL share has dropped due to a mixture of profit-taking and the adoption of a

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5 Best internships in Kenya.

The Kenyatta administration has said that it will offer tax rebates to companies that offer internships to young Kenyan graduates that are just out of university. So, which are the Kenyan companies to intern at? Here are five of the best.

1. Bamburi

Want to get lots of experience plus a little pocket money on the side? Then Bamburi is no doubt the place to be. It also encourages female interns to apply, especially in the technical and engineering fields.

2. Google.

Google is known to offer generous monthly stipends, plus you get to go to work in jeans and T-shirts,

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Facebook, Microsoft release surveillance data requests from US.

Facebook and Microsoft have struck agreements with the U.S. government to release limited information about the number of surveillance requests they receive. The companies aim to avert a fallout from their users as they far their private data could be sold off to US intelligence agencies.

Facebook became the first to release aggregate numbers of requests, saying that it received between 9,000 and 10,000 U.S. requests for user data in the second half of 2012, covering 18,000 to 19,000 of

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Google launches cheap internet for Africa, South Asia.

Google has launched internet balloons; a service it hopes would bring internet to the world’s ‘marginalized regions’ in Africa and South Asia. Wrinkled and skinny at first, the translucent, jellyfish-shaped balloons will also provide internet to rural areas in the developed world, where internet service providers shy away from serving because of lack of ‘profit incentives’. 

If successful, the technology might allow countries to leapfrog the expense of laying fibre cable,

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I&M Bank Plans to Fundraise for Regional Expansion.

I&M Bank Ltd., plans to raise money in the next year to fund its regional expansion, Chief Executive Officer Arun Mathur said. This comes as I&M Bank is set to being trading at the NSE this month.
The bank plans to begin operations in Uganda in the next 12 months, possibly by acquiring an existing lender, before venturing into South Sudan and Zambia, Executive Director Sarit Raja-Shah said in an interview to Bloomberg news. I&M already operates in Tanzania, Rwanda and Mauritius.

“We are still thinking of how to raise money,” Mathur, 59, said. He said the company has not yet determined how much it plans to raise. “There could be a rights issue, there could be an issue of debt and equity” carried out by July 2014, he said.

Profit increased by 21 percent at Kenyan banks last year to 107.9 billion shillings ($1.26 billion), helped by a surge in interest income after the central bank raised its benchmark rate to a record. Total assets grew 15 percent to 2.33 trillion shillings, according to central bank data. Earnings may grow further

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10 Great Hidden Careers for 2013 and Beyond

Most people limit their career choices to the well-known: doctor, lawyer, or engineer. Here are 10 professions that are not only underappreciated, but that offer advantages over the more traditional careers. Here are ten careers that you might want to re-look again and advise someone to pursue.

1. Kindergarten-ECD- teacher. Parents are forking gazillions for their children to study in top notch private kindergarten schools. Whilst in our generation nursery school wasn’t something our parents thought much about, these days it’s different. The fee for top kindergarten schools easily outstrips the fee for many primary schools, and quality teachers at this stage of a child’s development are hard to

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The Most Overlooked Part of Your Data Security.

Organizations constantly replace outdated computers, servers, laptops, copiers, and countless other types of electronic devices to keep up with technology and enhance worker productivity. This rush to upgrade, however, creates a challenge: large numbers of excess electronics must be managed and disposed of properly.

During a recent IT asset disposal project for a large New York bank, a chain-of-custody audit revealed three computers were untracked. An IT director was suspected of taking them.

Soft Underbelly of Data Security
Without question, most large organizations take data security seriously. Corporations will spend an estimated $68 billion worldwide this year on IT security measures including firewalls, network

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Mombasa port falls behind Durban port in African trade.

Transporting goods by sea remains the most common way to trade globally, but in Africa cargo spends an abnormally long time in ports before it is moved inland, presenting a serious obstacle to the successful integration of sub-Saharan economies in worldwide trade networks. A World Bank study, titled ‘Why does cargo spend weeks in sub-Saharan African ports?’ shows.

Lessons from six countries, found the average cargo waiting time to be 20 days and that more than half of the time needed to transport cargo from ports to ­hinterland cities in landlocked countries in

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Doing Business in Africa, Critical to Global Growth - U.S.

The United States government yesterday stressed the need and importance for foreign investors in the country and across the world to do businesses in the African continent.

Speaking at ongoing African-US Trade Exhibition held at the Baltimore Convention Center, the Governor of Maryland State, Mr. Martin O'Malley, maintained that doing businesses with Africa was

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