Author: Khusoko

The economic complexities presented by the COVID-19 pandemic is pushing monetary authorities towards more flexible long term policy objectives.  To this end, the US Federal Reserve last week reviewed its long term inflation management strategy away from an absolute to an average target of 2.00%. This will allow inflation to somewhat run above 2.0%, without raising expectations of higher interest rates. The shift may affirm the current broad-based low policy rate environment across the globe given the engrained leader-follower relationship among central bankers.  Moreover, the Fed’s policy move may offer some reprieve to central banks in emerging and developing markets,…

Spanish delivery startup Glovo has appointed Priscilla Muhiu as General Manager for Kenya.  Priscilla takes over from William Benthall who has been appointed Glovo’s General Manager for Sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to her appointment, Priscilla was the Africa Marketing Head for Glovo, where she led the team that successfully launched the Glovo brand in Kenya and Côte d’Ivoire.  Her previous experience includes working with tech companies such as Sendy and OLX. Priscilla has a wealth of industry knowledge when it comes to growth hacking, market strategy development, and business modelling. She is also very passionate about solving problems in Africa through…

British American Tobacco’s Board has appointed Isuzu East Africa chief executive Rita Kavashe as its chair. She replaces Mr. George Maina as a Director and as the Chairperson of the Board with effect from 31st August 2020. Maina, served as a Non-Executive Director and Chair of the Board for nine years. “He has led the Company through a period of major transformation, including overseeing the Company’s first step in its ambition to build A Better Tomorrow for its stakeholders. He leaves behind a much stronger and more sustainable organization,” BAT Kenya Managing Director, Mrs. Beverley Spencer-Obatoyinbo said in a statement.…

Huawei’s 5G wireless and core network equipment (5G RAN gNodeB, 5G Core UDG,UDM,UNC,UPCF) and LTE eNodeB has passed the GSMA’s Network Equipment Security Assurance Scheme (NESAS). GSMA NESAS boosts the industry’s confidence in telecom network equipment, making it a practical choice for the industry and an important consideration for all regional markets, to jointly promote the development of more aligned mobile communications market. NESAS is a standardized cybersecurity assessment mechanism jointly defined by GSMA and 3GPP, together with major global operators, vendors, industry partners and regulators. It provides an industry-wide security assurance framework to facilitate improvements in security levels across…

Linda seeks to promote sexual-health education and sexual assault awareness in primary and secondary school students in Kenya through a subscription-based text message service. Teenage girls in Kenya often lack access to sexual and reproductive health services, many unaware that such services even exist. Not knowing where to turn for reliable information about their bodies and their rights, some young women find themselves dropping out of school — marrying early, having babies — while others endure the trauma of sexual assault or risky abortions. The Global Childhood Report 2019 published by Save the Children ranked Kenya the third highest in…

Ecobank Group says its Pan-African Banking Sandbox is live allowing partners and fintechs across 33 African countries to gain access to its Application Programming Interface (API) to develop innovative financial solutions. This follows a successful pilot run with select Fintechs in early 2020. The Sandbox will position the annual Ecobank Fintech Challenge beyond a competition to a Developer Platform and Marketplace of fintech solutions.  The Group Executive, Technology and Operations – Mr. Eddy Ogbogu stresses that “As the Pan-African bank, Ecobank is committed to the growth of  the Pan-African Fintech Ecosystem. This Sandbox is designed to facilitate this objective. Innovative…