East Africa Economic Report

African Heads of State: How Serious are they on ICC? THE "AFRICA RISING" narrative is now firmly embedded in our vocabulary. The continent appears set to introduce another narrative: “assertive Africa.” And since this assertiveness appears directed mainly at the West, it had better sit up and take note.  But how serious, one might ask, is Africa’s new narrative; what is its potential impact on global economy and politics? What are the potential risks and gains of misunderstanding Africa’s assertiveness? Can Africa sustain it? To answer these questions we may ask; what are the causes of Africa’s change of fortunes from a hopeless continent to a rising one?  The major causes are in house, such as good housekeeping, end of wars, expanding domestic demand due to the growth of the middle class. Of course good commodity prices have also played their part. But by and large the causes of the progress are home brewed. There is a growing body of evidence that Africa ha...

KENYA AND ANGOLA ARE the cheapest phone call markets in Africa. Their tariff per minute is $0.04. At the other end of the spectrum is Liberia the most expensive telecoms market, a report by Mobile Africa Tariff tracker says.  Its mobile call rate per minute is US$1.71, says the report. Perhaps the most expensive in the world, we dare say. The country is served by four operators namely; lonestar, Atlantic, comium and cellcom.  The report focusing on 37 African countries shows that six countries have tariffs ranging between $0.04 and $0.09. These include Kenya and Angola. Others in this category are; Ghana $0.06, Nigeria and Rwanda $0.08 and Gambia $0.09. In the middle tier are 15 countries whose tariff per minute range between US$0.10 and $0.19. Tanzania and Uganda in east Africa are the cheapest in this category charging $0.10 per minute followed by Benin, Namibia, Burundi, Mozambique and at $0.14 per minute. Congo, South Africa, Guinea, Bissau and Bourkina Fa...

1990s: Fixed line telecoms frustrated Kenyans  who  embraced  Mobile telephony with a religious zeal KENYA'S TELECOMS MARKET has reached maturity. This is the second market in Africa  to hit a plateau after South Africa. The driver of growth in the last decade, mobile telephony, has hit the plateau, meaning that from now on, vertical growth will be painfully slow. There are 30 million subscribers in a country of 42 million people, meaning there are more mobile phone handsets than there are adults.  The result is a slowdown in growth of mobile penetration, which now hovers around 2.7 per cent quarter –on- quarter. This is not surprising as the telephone penetration rate now is 78 per cent, further dimming the prospects for future vertical growth in Kenya. 2013: This market is now saturated.  What next  for telecoms sector? Vertical expansion is the acquisition of new customers thus expanding a company’s market share. In the early years...

A section of the 40,000 Ha wind power farm in  Samburu County THE AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK (AfDB), has approved a US$149.5 million to finance the Lake Turkana Wind power project in Kenya.  This is part of a US$240.9 million  the Bank will invest in  the Project, Africa’s largest wind power farm.  In addition the Bank will carry out a road show in a bid to attract more lenders to the project.  The move by the AfDB unlocks funding for the project which has been dogged by years of uncertainty and doubt.  Now with AfDB’s money and stamp of approval, the project is firmly on the path to implementation and completion.  Lake Turkana wind power project is the largest wind power project in Africa. It will generate some 300MW for Kenya’s national grid. This is 40 per cent of Kenya’s e current electricity output standing at 1250 MW.  The project’s funding had been thrown off-balance by refusal by the World Bank to provide guarantees. Th...

KENYA AIRWAYS is headed for dominance of the African airspace as other African airlines collapse like dominoes. Kenya Airways is one of the two African airlines that are growing. At the current rate of expansion KQ will dominate the Africa airspace in under 10 years.  KQ:Could dominate Africa in under 10 years The only other strong airline in Sub Saharan Africa is Ethiopian Airlines. Therefore the contest for the dominance of the African airspace is between KQ and ET. The South African Airways, which we had listed as among the major competitors in an earlier story is flying through a rough patch and therefore not ready for a fight. See http://eaers.blogspot.com/2012/03/the-battle-for-domination-africas-skies.html  The airline has been on life support for close to a decade now and soon the government there will have to face the sad reality that the airline business model is unsustainable. The airline has suffered a high turnover of CEOs in the last decade- running t...