East Africa
Everything Africa’s Point publishes on East Africa, written for professionals who need the decision and the number, not the noise.
MTN eyes banking licences for lending
MTN is exploring banking licences in markets where its Mobile Money service has significant reach, a move that could let it take deposits and lend directly from its own balance sheet. Chief executive Ralph Mupita named…
AfDB backs Arua airport in Uganda
The African Development Bank has approved $180 million to upgrade Uganda’s Arua Airport into an international-standard facility capable of handling…
Uganda Airlines orders 10 Boeing aircraft
Uganda Airlines signed a commitment with Boeing on June 10 to acquire 10 aircraft including 8 passenger planes and 2 freighters (Boeing 767CF and…
Berbera’s rise reshapes East Africa trade
Berbera Port in Somaliland has expanded to 500,000 TEUs annually and is positioning itself as a major trade gateway for Ethiopia and the Horn of…
Museveni: Uganda will hit 50,000MW
Museveni’s June 4 State of the Nation Address set a target for Uganda to expand electricity generation to 50,000 megawatts, 25 times current…
East Africa unleashes $20bn infrastructure drive
East Africa’s six major economies are executing a coordinated $20 billion infrastructure push across transport, energy, ports and digital networks…
Rwanda and Tanzania greenlight $2.5bn railway
Rwanda and Tanzania agreed on May 3 to advance the $2.5 billion Isaka-Kigali Standard Gauge Railway, a 422-kilometre electrified line connecting…
Museveni signs law that rattles investors
Uganda’s President Museveni signed the Protection of Sovereignty Act into law on May 17, requiring individuals acting on behalf of foreign interests…
Somalia slides toward famine as aid collapses and Hormuz bites
Parts of southern Somalia face famine for the first time since 2022 as Hormuz disruption drives up to 60% price surges for diesel and therapeutic…
Somalia’s Hormuud finances 100,000 smartphones for poor
Somalia’s Hormuud Telecom is financing 100,000 smartphones for low-income subscribers through deposit and instalment payments via its EVC Plus…
Somalia prepares first offshore oil drill in historic first
Somalia is preparing to launch its first offshore oil drilling operations, tapping into Indian Ocean reserves estimated to hold billions of barrels,…
Dangote pledges 650,000 bpd refinery for East Africa
Aliko Dangote pledged at the AFC summit in Nairobi to build a 650,000 barrel-per-day oil refinery in Tanga, Tanzania, identical in scale to his…
Diageo’s $2.3bn EABL sale clears Kenya court
A Kenyan court cleared Diageo’s $2.3bn sale of East African Breweries to Japan’s Asahi Group on April 10, dismissing a last-minute challenge and…
Thailand seals $4.6m in Nairobi tech deals
Thailand sealed $4.6 million in tech deals on day one of a Nairobi business matching event, with 73 Kenyan firms meeting 14 Thai software companies…
Rwanda fuel demand spikes 40% on war stockpiling
Rwanda’s fuel demand surged nearly 40% in April as Strait of Hormuz fears triggered stockpiling across East Africa, exposing the fragility of…
KRA puts 22 million Kenyans on WhatsApp tax
KRA’s new WhatsApp chatbot Shuru targets 22.6 million potential taxpayers, cutting the filing process from eight steps to three with pre-filled PAYE…
Kenya chiefs arrested in Ksh4bn fuel fraud
Kenya’s three top energy officials have resigned and been arrested after investigators found they falsified fuel stock data to trigger an emergency…
US spends $71m on Kenya airbase as ties deepen
IN SHORT: Kenya and the US are deepening defence ties across counterterrorism, maritime security, and emerging technology, with a series of…
Nairobi hosts Kenya’s biggest investment conference this week
Burundi joins Eritrea, Sudan, Uganda, Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, Rwanda, Malawi, Mauritius, Seychelles, Comoros, Djibouti, DRC,…
KRA wants VAT on every business in Kenya
The Kenya Revenue Authority wants the VAT registration threshold cut from $39,000 (KES 5 million) to zero, pulling every business in Kenya, from…
All four SA banks are chasing Kenya
All four of South Africa’s biggest banks are targeting Kenya simultaneously. Nedbank is buying NCBA. Absa, Standard Bank and FirstRand are all…
Ruto breaks ground on Kenya’s western SGR
President Ruto broke ground on the Naivasha-Kisumu-Malaba SGR extension at Suswa on March 19, launching a 371-kilometre railway that will link the…
Two million Kenyans with epilepsy, 80% untreated
Up to two million Kenyans live with epilepsy. Four in five receive no treatment. New EPInA research shows the burden is wider than recorded because…
Tanzania’s $15bn FDI gap is a readiness problem
Tanzania targets $15 billion in annual FDI and 6.3 percent GDP growth in 2026 but the gap between macroeconomic ambition and business-level…