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Wednesday 19th of June 2019
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Morning Africa |
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0930-1500 KENYA TIME
Normal Board - The Whole shebang
Prompt Board Next day settlement
Expert Board All you need re an Individual stock.
The Latest Daily PodCast can be found here on the Front Page of the site
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03-JUN-2019 :: Bond Yields in "Tilt" Mode Africa |
Classical Economic Theory predicted that if lashings and lashings of
freshly printed money were injected intravenously into the Patient,
then the value of money should devalue and in- flation run off the
charts. Clearly this has not happened. In fact Inflation Gauges are
slumping and Inflation is ‘’Like a patient etherized upon a table’’
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12-SEP-2016 :: Mirrors on the ceiling, The pink champagne on ice Africa |
If volatility spikes, positions are going to be reduced en masse. Or
to put it another way and to borrow the lyrics from the Eagles Hotel
California:
Mirrors on the ceiling,
The pink champagne on ice
And she said “We are all just prisoners here, of our own device” Last
thing I remember, I was
Running for the door
I had to find the passage back
To the place I was before
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Africa |
Using the archeological record and recent advances in human genetics,
my aim was to retrace, as closely as twenty-first-century borders and
wars allowed, the pathways blazed by the first Homo sapiens, who left
Africa to discover the world about sixty thousand years ago.
In six-and-a-half years, I’ve covered nearly eleven thousand miles
between my starting point, at an Ethiopian fossil site called Herto
Bouri, and my current location, in the jungle hills of northeastern
India. Along the way, I have followed old Haj trails grooved into
solid rock in Saudi Arabia, slept under canvas with Syrian refugees,
been detained nearly a hundred times by police of various nations, and
yo-yoed through a peaceful, alpine corner of Afghanistan that is
rarely seen by most Afghans themselves. My onward routing—and it
should be pointed out that I don’t know exactly where I’ll be walking
next Tuesday, much less in a year—involves traversing China and
Russia, hitching a ride on a cargo ship across the Bering Strait, to
Alaska, and hiking down the Americas to the final continental horizon
of our species: the Beagle Channel, in Argentina. Along the way, I’m
pausing to record modern encounters along the ancestors’ trail. I try
to use the mirror of history to understand current events. I get lost
a lot.
We’ve been footloose nomads for more than ninety per cent of our
species’s existence. We’re nature’s ultimate walking machines.
Scientists have given G.P.S. devices to the Hadza people of
Tanzania—hunters and gatherers whose life style is similar to that of
the ancient pioneers I’m following—and found that ordinary Hadza women
and men walk, on average, about three and a half and seven miles a
day, respectively. Even the lower figure almost adds up to a stroll
between New York and Kansas City every single year. Pacing off
continents is normal. Sitting down for a lifetime is the extreme
activity. And then there’s the question of storytelling.
Before stepping off on this journey, I worked for years as a motorized
foreign correspondent, covering wars from the Congo to Iraq. It often
struck me, as I pinballed among assignments in planes, that much of
what I produced seemed impaired, artificially truncated, arbitrarily
constrained. Tug hard enough on any story and you will find it
connected to another story, and then another, ad infinitum, across the
palimpsest of the world. Moving through headlines at three miles an
hour reveals this intimate warp and weft. It’s not just about the
rewards of immersion to be gained by living for years at boot-level
with the ordinary farmers, artists, soldiers, students, and unemployed
factory hands who inhabit global events; walking exposes the
integument that binds our narratives together. Absorbing this requires
surrendering speed.
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Law & Politics |
Xi’s speech 2017 “Any attempt to endanger China’s sovereignty &
security, challenge the power of the central government… or use Hong
Kong to carry out infiltration and sabotage activities against the
mainland is an act that crosses the red line and is absolutely
impermissible.”
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.@facebook Wants Its Cryptocurrency to One Day Rival the Greenback @technology World Currencies |
Facebook Inc. unveiled plans for a new, global financial system with a
broad group of partners from Visa Inc. to Uber Technologies Inc. on
board to create a cryptocurrency it expects will one day trade much
like the U.S. dollar and inject a new source of revenue.
Called Libra, the new currency will launch as soon as next year and be
what's known as a stablecoin–a digital currency that's supported by
established government-backed currencies and securities.
The goal is to avoid massive fluctuations in value so Libra can be
used for everyday transactions across Facebook in a way that more
volatile cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin, haven’t been.
The project is the culmination of a year-long effort as Facebook seeks
to spur growth on its various platforms that already count more than 2
billion users.
But it will also likely face skepticism–from regulators who already
think Facebook has too much power and plays loose with digital
privacy, and from those that are dubious of cryptocurrencies, which
are known more for speculative investments and blackmarket commerce
than for legitimate financial transactions.
If successful, Libra could make Facebook a much bigger player in
financial services. Cryptocurrency firms have been trying to build
cross-border, digital currencies on the blockchain to disrupt
traditional banking and payments for a decade, but nothing has caught
on at the scale of traditional money yet.
Facebook, which announced the project with 27 partners, is already
under wide-ranging regulatory scrutiny over how it handles users’
private data.
Growth of its main platform has plateaued in some major markets and
crypto payments would be a way to turn messaging – across WhatsApp,
Facebook and Instagram -- into a business that complements its
advertising operation, which generates almost all of its revenue.
Facebook shares gained early Tuesday as analysts saw the move as a
potentially major new profit stream.
“We view Facebook’s introduction of the Libra currency as a potential
watershed moment for the company and global adoption of crypto,” wrote
Mark Mahaney, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets who has an outperform
rating and $250 price target on Facebook shares.
“In terms of scale and importance, we believe this new financial
infrastructure could be viewed similar to Apple’s introduction of iOS
to developers over a decade ago.”
Still, the announcement was met immediately with political opposition
in Europe, with calls for tighter regulation of the company.
French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said Libra shouldn’t be seen as
a replacement for traditional currencies and called on the Group of
Seven central bank governors to prepare a report on the project for
their July meeting.
“It is out of question’’ that Libra “become a sovereign currency,’’
LeMaire said in an interview on Europe 1 radio. “It can’t and it must
not happen.”
To come anywhere close to matching the U.S. dollar for utility and
acceptance, Libra will need to be widely trusted. So Facebook and its
partners are mimicking how other currencies have been introduced in
the past.
“To help instill trust in a new currency and gain widespread adoption
during its infancy, it was guaranteed that a country’s notes could be
traded in for real assets, such as gold,” the companies wrote in a
white paper.
“Instead of backing Libra with gold, though, it will be backed by a
collection of low-volatility assets, such as bank deposits and
short-term government securities in currencies from stable and
reputable central banks."
The total number of Libra can change, and new digital coins can be
issued whenever someone wants to exchange their Libra for an existing
fiat currency, so the price shouldn’t fluctuate any more than other
stable currencies, according to David Marcus, head of the Facebook
blockchain team that’s spearheading the project.
“It would make a scenario where there’s a run on the bank completely
impossible, because we are backed one-for-one,” he said. Libra will
also be audited, he added, an important step in an industry with
limited transparency.
Facebook has closely guarded its crypto plans for more than a year,
though many of the details have already been reported by Bloomberg
News and other outlets.
Marcus, who used to run Facebook Messenger, said Facebook plans to
build a new digital wallet that will exist inside Messenger and its
other standalone messaging service, WhatsApp.
Once Libra is up and running, the currency and the digital wallet
should make it easier for people to send money to friends, family and
businesses through the apps.
Libra will run on the so-called blockchain, a database that can use
millions of computers to verify transactions, eliminating risks that
come with information being held centrally by a single entity.
Facebook created a new subsidiary, called Calibra, to build the new
wallet and focus on the company’s blockchain efforts.
Facebook's track record in payments and commerce has been spotty. A
few years ago, it began letting people buy flowers or hail an Uber
through its Messenger service. Those features have not been huge hits.
In 2010, it began offering Facebook Credits, a way to buy virtual
goods inside Facebook games. But in 2012 it scrapped Credits, and in
2013 it started working with third-party services like PayPal process
some payments.
Facebook's revenue from "payments and other service" was less than 2%
of total sales in 2018.
When it finally arrives, Libra will be late to a party that’s been
going on so long, many of the party-goers have either left or
collapsed.
Some past attempts to make coins usable for commerce, such as Bitcoin,
haven’t widely caught on yet because price volatility mainly attracted
traders and speculators.
Predecessor stablecoins, like Tether, have been used by some traders
to park funds in during times of high volatility, but have not been
broadly adopted for commerce.
U.S. regulations may represent another hurdle for Facebook. Creating a
digital currency doesn’t just require buy-in from financial
institutions who need to accept it, and consumers who need to trust
it, but it requires approval from regulators, too.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has shut down about a dozen
businesses issuing their own tokens for violations of securities law.
Marcus said Facebook has been in contact with regulators and central
banks, but added that the company hasn’t received a “no-action” letter
from the SEC yet. That would have safeguarded the project from
regulatory action by the agency.
One way Facebook hopes to appease regulators is through the Libra
Association, a governing body tasked with making decisions about
Libra.
Firms including Visa and PayPal Holdings Inc. are part of the group.
Marcus described these members as “co-founders,” and said they will
have an equal say in how the cryptocurrency is managed.
“Facebook will not have any special privilege or special voting rights
at the association level,” said Marcus, the former president of
PayPal.
“We will have competitors and other players on top of this platform
that will build competing wallets and services.”
All Libra Association members are putting a minimum of $10 million
into a reserve to help support the cryptocurrency’s value. This buy-in
comes with voting privileges.
However, the association’s governance structure is still in flux, and
most of the group’s crucial decisions, including the creation of its
charter, have not yet been decided, according to several members of
the group.
They asked not to be identified discussing private details.
Libra’s timing could also pose challenges. Facebook is being
investigated by the Federal Trade Commission over the company’s
privacy practices. Some have called for the company to be broken up,
including Senator Elizabeth Warren and Facebook co-founder Chris
Hughes.
Asking consumers to put more trust in the social media giant, and
giving Facebook a strong entry into the world of digital payments and
banking, will likely draw further criticism.
The company plans to keep financial data gathered from Libra users
separate from Facebook user data. That’s why Facebook’s digital wallet
will exist under the Calibra subsidiary, which will house user
transaction data on separate servers, Marcus said.
If a WhatsApp user uses her Calibra wallet to send money to a friend
or pay a retailer, those interactions won’t be stored alongside her
social-media profile.
“There’s a clear distinction between Calibra and what Calibra has
access to, and what Facebook Inc. has access to,” Marcus said. “It’s
very clear that people don’t want their financial data from an account
to be comingled with social data or to be used for other purposes.”
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The world's best-performing precious-metals stock is up almost 90% this year, and there are signs the rally could run even further. Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd. has outpaced 87 global peers Commodities |
Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd. has outpaced 87 global peers with a
market value of at least $1 billion in 2019, data compiled by
Bloomberg show. The South African miner has benefited from surging
palladium and rhodium prices, along with any weakness in the local
currency, which bolsters its income from sales of dollar-based metals.
“The rally in palladium has been a big contributor,” coupled with a
weaker rand, said Henre Herselman, a derivatives trader at
Johannesburg-based Anchor Private Clients. Palladium, up 60% since
August, makes a 30% contribution to Impala’s earnings, he said. The
rand has dropped 6% against the dollar in 12 months.
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Africa |
ENTEBBE, Uganda—The government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro
is selling off his country’s gold reserves. Some of it has passed
through a secretive operation in East Africa, a gambit that evades
U.S. sanctions.
On two early-March flights, at least 7.4 tons of gold with a market
value over $300 million moved from Venezuela to a refinery in Uganda,
say officials in Venezuela and Uganda, a foreign diplomat and
Venezuelan opposition lawmakers, who have concluded Mr. Maduro’s
government exported the ingots. The gold arrived on a Russian charter
jetliner in two shipments at the international airport in Entebbe,
says Ugandan national-police spokesman Fred Enanga. The accompanying
paperwork identified the ingots, some with stamped labels partially
scratched off, as Venezuelan central-bank property, says a senior
Ugandan police officer who saw the bars and documents. Flight records
show the trips originated in Caracas, Venezuela. The shipments expose
one link in a global underground economy many suspect is helping Mr.
Maduro cling to power by bypassing the U.S.-dominated international
finance system. Washington has recognized opposition leader Juan
Guaidó as Venezuela’s legitimate president, slapped financial and
other sanctions on Venezuelan officials and institutions, and
threatened penalties for others doing business with the regime.
Gold sales, U.S. and other officials say, are one of the government’s
final financial lifelines.
The gold that arrived in Entebbe passed through African Gold Refinery
Ltd., or AGR, in a compound about 500 yards from the old runway before
being exported to the Middle East, Ugandan police say. The refinery
started operations in 2015. Some of the gold it processed was
allegedly smuggled from conflict-torn eastern Congo and other African
nations, according to officials with Ugandan police, the country’s
Financial Intelligence Authority and regional smugglers. Gold from AGR
has made its way into supply chains at U.S. companies including
General Motors Co. , General Electric Co. and Starbucks Corp. , the
firms’ filings for 2018 with the Securities and Exchange Commission
show, despite U.S. measures to discourage use of so-called conflict
minerals from Congo. GM prohibits suppliers from using forced or
involuntary labor or engage in corrupt business practices, a spokesman
says. GE declined to comment. Starbucks didn’t respond to requests for
comment.
AGR General Manager Cherry Anne Dacdac says the company hasn’t
processed smuggled or conflict gold and declines to comment on the
March shipments. She says all AGR’s business is legal and that in a
March 26 management meeting it agreed it won’t accept transactions
related to Venezuela. AGR has processed and exported more than 38 tons
of gold since it started operations, Ms. Dacdac says. The scale of its
operation helped drive gold in 2018 to overtake coffee as the leading
export from Uganda, which mines little of it.
The refinery appears to act with support from Ugandan President Yoweri
Museveni, court and other documents reviewed by the Journal suggest. A
spokesman for Mr. Museveni says the president “backs the plant just as
he does all other investors” in his quest to transform Uganda’s
economy.
The Maduro government’s prior gold sales have been an open point of
contention. Between late 2017 and Feb. 1, 2019, the central bank sold
at least 73.3 tons of gold, with a market value of around $3 billion,
to companies in the United Arab Emirates and Turkey, the National
Assembly’s finance commission announced in February. The White House
on Nov. 1 announced sanctions intended to stop Venezuelan gold sales.
Since then, several dozen more tons have been removed from the central
bank and secretly exported, say opposition lawmakers and a person
familiar with the bank’s reserves. The bank for weeks was left without
power and water.
“It’s a fire sale,” says one of the lawmakers, Ángel Alvarado, who is
on the finance commission. “The regime is scraping the barrel, selling
off anything of value to keep itself afloat.”
A U.S. Treasury Department official says: “Treasury is committed to
holding accountable those operating corruptly in Venezuela’s gold
sector.”
Spokesmen for Venezuela’s central bank and Information Ministry didn’t
respond to requests for comment. The Maduro government has said little
publicly about its gold sales and routinely dismisses sanctions and
accusations of wrongdoing as part of an international campaign to
besmirch Caracas.
AGR was founded in 2014 by Alain Goetz, 54, a Belgian businessman who
has worked more than three decades in the African gold trade.
Gold is almost impossible to trace to its origin once refined. The
United Nations says gold is the primary mineral financing militias and
parts of the military in eastern Congo, funding a conflict that has
killed millions.
Even before the Venezuelan shipments, AGR had drawn the scrutiny of
Ugandan authorities for processing gold allegedly smuggled from
conflict zones in Congo, as well as from South Sudan and Zimbabwe,
much of which later leaves the country as Ugandan gold, according to
Ugandan police, the country’s Financial Intelligence Authority,
regional smugglers and Congolese mining officials. Sydney Asubo,
executive director of the Financial Intelligence Authority, Uganda’s
government body in charge of combating money laundering, says the
agency reported the smuggling activities to authorities and requested
prosecution. No charges have been filed, he says, pending the
conclusion of an investigation of AGR by Uganda’s Inspectorate of
Government over suspicions of tax evasion, smuggling and money
laundering. Ali Munira, a spokeswoman for the Inspectorate, which is
charged with investigating corruption and other abuses, confirms there
is an investigation but declined to comment on details.
Mr. Goetz and AGR’s Ms. Dacdac say they have complied with Ugandan and
other laws. Mr. Goetz denies there are probes. Ms. Dacdac says she
isn’t aware of any investigations by the Financial Intelligence
Authority or Inspectorate.
America’s 2010 Dodd-Frank Act included provisions to discourage
companies from using raw materials that finance the Congolese conflict
by tracing what they buy. The act doesn’t make buying these materials
illegal. AGR appeared in supply chains of 237 publicly traded U.S.
companies in their filings for 2018.
Mr. Goetz says he has sold AGR and retains control of Goetz Gold LLC,
a Dubai trading company. Goetz Gold still handles the gold coming from
AGR, he says. AGR’s Ms. Dacdac didn’t respond to requests to comment
on whether Goetz Gold handles the company’s gold. Uganda’s company
registry shows Mr. Goetz’s AGR shares were transferred in February
2018 to Seychelles-based AGR International Ltd. Ms. Dacdac says that
company is owned by individuals and companies originating from the
Middle East. On March 2, the red-tailed body of a Boeing 777 owned by
a Russian charter company, Nordwind Airlines, touched down at Entebbe
at 6:35 a.m. after taking off more than 13 hours earlier from Caracas,
plane-tracking website Flightradar24 shows. Nordwind didn’t respond to
requests for comment. Police and private security gathered on the
tarmac to receive the cargo from the jetliner, which carried no
passengers, says a person who witnessed its arrival. Airport handlers
removed heavy parcels wrapped in brown cardboard, which didn’t pass
through the airport’s regular customs procedures, says Mr. Enanga, the
Ugandan police spokesman. Less than an hour after landing, the
packages under a private-security escort reached the AGR compound just
across the airport access road, he says.
Inside the cardboard were 3.8 tons of Venezuelan gold. Another 3.6
tons on the same airliner from Caracas arrived at the refinery two
days later, Mr. Enanga says. By the time the police’s minerals unit,
tipped off over the unusually large consignments, raided AGR on March
7, the first lot was gone, exported to the Middle East with its final
destination listed as Turkey, he says. The senior Ugandan police
officer and Mr. Goetz say the gold was sent to Goetz Gold in Dubai.
AGR’s Ms. Dacdac didn’t respond to requests for comment on whether the
company exported the gold to Goetz Gold. Mr. Goetz says Goetz Gold
didn’t send it to Turkey.
Ugandan police seized the other 3.6 tons, ingots stamped with labels
identifying them as Venezuelan central-bank property, says the senior
officer who saw them. Some labels appeared scratched, as if someone
had tried to disguise their origin, the officer says. Paperwork with
the bars showed they were from the 1940s.
Mr. Goetz and AGR’s Ms. Dacdac say police never raided the refinery
and never seized any gold. Ms. Dacdac says: “AGR presented all the
necessary documentations as proof that the particular transactions
have been declared and captured by the Uganda Revenue Authority.” It
wasn’t the first time authorities identified Venezuelan gold handled
by Mr. Goetz. Last year, Venezuela’s central bank was selling gold to
three trading firms in Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, according
to the February announcement by the Venezuelan parliament’s finance
commission, including to Goetz Gold, which bought 21.9 tons. Mr. Goetz
says some of that particular Venezuelan gold passed through Goetz Gold
but that it came from a company outside Venezuela and didn’t break
U.S. sanctions because contracts were signed before Nov. 1. After U.S.
sanctions, the central bank’s buyers were drying up. In late January,
as another Nordwind 777 sat at Caracas airport, Venezuelan opposition
lawmaker José Guerra, a former economist at the central bank, alleged
in parliament that the plane was there to fly out 20 tons of the
bank’s gold.
The U.S. publicly pressured the bank’s buyers in Turkey and the U.A.E.
“My advice to bankers, brokers, traders, facilitators, and other
businesses,” a tweet from national security adviser John Bolton’s
account warned on Jan. 30: “Don’t deal in gold, oil, or other
Venezuelan commodities being stolen from the Venezuelan people by the
Maduro mafia.”
Two days later, Abu Dhabi-based Noor Capital, which had previously
bought 27.4 tons of Venezuelan gold, according to the Venezuelan
parliament’s finance commission, announced it was stopping such
purchases. Flightradar24 shows the Boeing 777 returned to Moscow.
Noor Capital declined to comment beyond a Feb. 1 statement confirming
it had bought 3 tons of gold from Venezuela’s central bank on Jan. 21
and denying engaging in illegal actions.
Two months later in Uganda, as police say that the seized Entebbe gold
shipment sat in custody, relief came from President Museveni. In a
letter dated March 26, a copy of which the Journal reviewed, Uganda’s
attorney general, William Byaruhanga, ordered the police
minerals-protection unit to release the gold and withdraw officers
from AGR.
Police complied, says Mr. Enanga, the police spokesman.
The order to release the gold, Mr. Byaruhanga wrote in the letter,
came from President Museveni, whom he said he had met the day before
at State House in Entebbe. “AGR is instructed henceforth,” the letter
said, to “cease and desist from any further importation of gold from
Venezuela, until further notice,” citing U.S. sanctions.
Pressure on Uganda and AGR was rising from U.S. diplomats who had
gotten wind of the shipments, says a person familiar with the
pressure.
The spokesman for Mr. Museveni says the president directed the
attorney general to release the seized gold after investigators
cleared the imports. Mr. Byaruhanga didn’t respond to requests for
comment. AGR’s Ms. Dacdac says the company didn’t seek Mr. Museveni’s
intervention.
From there, the Venezuelan gold’s trace fades. Some time in March, two
tons of gold were put up for sale in Turkey at a steep discount to
market prices, say people familiar with the matter. The origin was
listed as Uganda, but customs documents showed it came from
Venezuela’s central-bank vault, one of them says.
Unable to find a buyer, a second attempt was made to sell the gold at
a steeper discount, one of the people says, adding that it isn’t clear
if anyone bought it. Mr. Goetz says Goetz Gold didn’t offer the
Venezuelan gold for sale in Turkey.
There is a twist in the Venezuelan gold’s tale, says the person
familiar with the central bank’s reserves: The bars almost certainly
came from America in the 1940s, the person says, in payment to
Venezuela for oil supplied during World War II.
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Zimbabwean Stocks Hit Record High as Inflation Soars Near 100% @bpolitics Africa |
Zimbabwe’s stock market has hit a record high, for all the wrong reasons.
The southern African nation’s Industrial Index rose 5.6% on Monday to
extend its gain this quarter to 80%, the most among any of the primary
equity gauges tracked by Bloomberg globally.
Stocks are rising because local investors are desperate to hedge
against inflation, which accelerated to 98% in May, the statistics
agency said on Monday. Prices are rocketing amid a scarcity of foreign
exchange, which is causing shortages of fuel, medicine and other
imported goods.
It’s a similar situation to crisis-ridden Venezuela, where equities
are also soaring.
In Zimbabwe, investors’ fears about inflation are heightened by a
plunging currency. The RTGS$, which the government de-linked from the
U.S. dollar in February, has sunk about 57% since March on the black
market.
On the streets of Harare, the capital, it trades at 9.7 against the
greenback, according to marketwatch.co.zw, a website run by financial
analysts. That compares with the central bank’s official and much
stronger rate of 6.08.
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Seychelles and Benin are the top performing countries, offering visa-free access to all Africans. 2018 Africa @Visa Openness Index Africa |
Benin was the highest performing country since the last edition of the
Africa Visa Openness Index. The country increased its score by 200%,
moving from 27th place in 2017 to join Seychelles at the top in 2018.
Benin is only the second country on the continent to offer visa-free
access to all African countries and the first Francophone country to
do so.
“Inspired by Rwanda’s experience, I have come to the decision that
Benin will no longer demand visas for Africans. This South-South
cooperation can become a reality.” Patrice Talon President of Benin
“Citizens of all countries will get a visa upon arrival without prior
application, starting January 1, 2018.” Yves Butera Spokesperson,
Directorate-General of Immigration and Emigration, Rwanda
Against this backdrop, between 2013-2016, the number of Africans
receiving visas on arrival in Rwanda increased by more than 100%. The
country attracted higher numbers of visitors, greater investment, and
hosted more conferences due to the removal of travel restrictions.
Total travel and tourism contributed 12.7% to Rwanda’s GDP in 2017 and
is forecast to rise by 6.8% in 2018, according to the World Travel &
Tourism Council Economic Impact 2018 report.
“The new visa regime opens Rwanda to the world and is good for
business. Rwanda believes that the free movement of people fosters
trade and tourism and is good for the continent’s integration policy.
We are aware of the challenges of open borders, but as a country, we
also believe that the benefits of our policy outweigh the potential
setbacks.” Louise Mushikiwabo ForeignMinister, Rwanda
“For my fellow Africans, the free movement of people on our continent
has always been a cornerstone of Pan-African brotherhood and
fraternity. Today, I am directing that any African wishing to visit
Kenya will be eligible to receive a visa at the port of entry. To
underscore Kenya’s commitment, this shall not be done on the basis of
reciprocity. The freer we are to travel and live with one another, the
more integrated and appreciative of our diversity, we will become.”
Uhuru Kenyatta 28
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End of permanent and pensionable State jobs @BD_Africa Kenyan Economy |
The Public Service Commission (PSC) has stopped employing entry-level
State workers on permanent and pensionable terms in a radical policy
shift aimed at taming the runaway government wage bill.
Fresh university graduates, diploma holders and other professionals
getting jobs in ministries will now be deployed on renewable
three-year contracts based on “satisfactory performance,” PSC chairman
Stephen Kirogo said Tuesday.
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