Special Articles - Africa Business Reports
Rift Valley Railways, the consortium that currently manages and controls the Kenya-Uganda railway, is currently seeking permission to recruit new shareholders as it tries to obtain adequate financing of their plans to upgrade and improve the costly and inefficient railway system.
The railway quickly became strategically and economically vital for Uganda and Kenya as it was the only modern means of transport from the East African coast to the African interior and plateaus. The railway served to transport tourists, locals, as well as goods for trade such as coffee and tea. Over a century later, the railway is still a vital part of the region's economy. The port of Mombasa, where the railway begins, was estimated to have handled more than 14.5 million tons of cargo annually and is expected to handle over 27 million tons of cargo per year by 2030. This demonstrates the significance of the railway in East African trade.
But years of neglect and mismanagement have rendered the railway to be very costly, inefficient, and sometimes dangerous to use. Today, transporting a 40-unit container wagon from Mombasa to the Malaba border post costs around $100,000 by rail. Moreover, it is reported that 1,500 containers cross the Ugandan border every week even though the railway should bring at least 10,000 containers. There are also several safety-related incidents, including one in 1999 when 32 passengers died from the derailment of the train because its brakes failed.
Many different companies have tried to manage the more ...
Thousands of individuals leave their country annually, migrating thousands of miles via East Africa, from the Horn of Africa to ...
Africa has had a growing demand for Asia’s manufactured goods and machinery while demand in Asia’s developing economies is growing for Africa’s ...
President Jacob Zuma announced on Sunday that South Africa's central bank governor, Tito Mboweni will step down on August 8, ...
The US$750 million of debt is divided among a senior facility of US$550 million, a junior facility of US$100 million ...
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Latest News
South African gold and foreign- currency reserves fell $10 million in July as a decline in the price of bullion offset an increase in dollar purchases by the central bank. Gross reserves fell to $35.75 billion last month from…
This week, business and policy leaders from the United States and Africa are in Nairobi for the eighth annual United States-African trade and economic cooperation forum, Agoa.The solutions require public and private investments to transform Africa's small-holder-based subsistence agriculture into…
Gold Fields Ltd., Africa’s second- largest miner of the metal, said costs will rise 15 percent during the next quarter because of a stronger rand and increases in labor and power charges. Cash costs in the fiscal first quarter…
South Africa may be forced to sell 63 percent more bonds than it originally planned this year to make up for falling revenue caused by the economy's first recession in 17 years, Coronation Fund Managers Ltd. said. The government may…
South Africa’s rand gained after former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said the global recession is easing and reports showed manufacturing in China and India increased, boosting demand for high-yield assets. The rand advanced for a third day, adding…
Tanzania will probably achieve its economic growth target of 5 percent in 2009 as stimulus spending provides a boost to industries worst affected by the global financial crisis, Enos Bukuku, deputy governor of the Bank of Tanzania, said.“It’s working and…
Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua is seeking Senate approval for a $500 million concessional credit facility from the World Bank to help fund the 2009 budget, according to a letter to the upper house of parliament . 'We are seeking concurrence…
They reported that production fell to an average 1,800 metric tons during the 2007-2008 harvesting season and a deeper fall of more than 50 percent is expected for the 2008-2009 season from May to September. Joseph Taguma, the association’s general…
Encouraging levels of investment in Beira are changing the face of this port city, Mozambican President Armando Guebuza declared on Tuesday, after he inaugurated the new "VIP Inn Beira" Hotel.Sanitation in Beira has long been a headache, but Guebuza stressed…
South Africa’s unemployment rate was little changed in the second quarter after many people gave up looking for work as the economy fell into recession, threatening to stoke social tensions that have sparked a wave of protests. The jobless rate,…
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Exclusives - Africa Business Publications
Pirates of Somalia
The current Proliferation of piracy off the coast of Somalia has posed a substantial threat to development and commerce in the Horn of Africa. Ravaged by political instability, internal strife, and one of the least developed economics in the world, Somalia is a prime location for piracy. Maritime hijackings in the area have accordingly been on the rise, much to the detriment of international trade and the delivery of aid to Somalia. The threat of piracy has made travel around the Horn of Africa significantly more dangerous and costly, ultimately resulting in increased commodity prices and the disruption of international trade. Aid agencies, furthermore have been forced to travel with naval escorts or suspend deliveries to the region altogether, plunging millions of Somalis into…
The Failing Economy of Zimbabwe
Amid the harsh economic times that global markets are experiencing, the word ‘economy' has come to be closely associated with concepts of money. What is often forgotten is that the science of economics is a much broader field that encompasses how scarce resources are disbursed throughout a population. This differentiation is important when looking at the current global economic crisis because giving more money to certain countries will not necessarily put that country in a better economic position. These countries suffer from certain inefficiencies that are embedded in their infrastructure.
