Search Results for: Malawi

WITH Malawi’s persistent cycle of poverty where half of its 18 million population (2017 World Bank data) live under the poverty line and nearly 1.5 million children employed as labourers, according to International Labour Organisation (ILO) data, including on tobacco farms – meaningful reforms to prevent these abuses have progressed slowly, experts say.…

MAJOR universities from six African countries will next year (2019) be able to develop their services through each receiving USD20 million grants from the World Bank, via a regional rural development research initiative, with the money designed to turn these institutions into regional hubs for agricultural learning.…

MALAWI, a major African tobacco exporter, is seeking to modernise its leaf production through a comprehensive new law, which is now under discussion in its parliament.

Felix Thole, acting chief executive officer of the Tobacco Association of Malawi, said that the crafting of a new Malawi law, a Tobacco Bill, is expected to further improve the fortunes of the industry, including through the introduction of an ‘Integrated Production System’ (IPS), formalising contracting with growers, as a statutory requirement.…

EDUCATIONALISTS have called upon Kenyan universities to include social justice and transformation in their teaching curriculum, to prepare graduates to serve their societies selflessly and diligently.

At a conference called ‘Touching Hearts, Teaching Minds and Transforming Lives’, staged at Tangaza University College, in the capital Nairobi, delegates were told Kenyan students are not fully prepared for the society they are expected work and serve within, upon graduation in the current system.…

CORRUPTION saps economic competition that drives productivity improvements and grows emerging market economies – this is a key reason behind the establishment of the Commonwealth Africa Anti-Corruption Centre (CAACC). Another is the established link between the perception of risk from corrupt practices in a country and foreign economic investment.…

THE IMPORTANCE of Brazil as the world’s top supplier of internationally-traded tobacco leaf and manufactured products has been waning for the past decade, with India, notably, improving its position. New statistical analysis released by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) shows that this market share fall for Brazil also represented a decline in volume sales, given the global trade in tobacco leaf and products has shrunk since 2013 – until 2016, the year for which the latest data is available.…

WITH tobacco being a key driver of Zambia’s agriculture sector and a past reliable source of export earnings, a recent decline in leaf production has taken a heavy toll on this southern African country’s economy. Indeed, Zambia saw its agricultural foreign exchange earnings (of all farm-based products) fall by USD100 million in 2017, according to Zambia’s agriculture ministry.…

Kenya is likely to become the second country in east Africa after Rwanda to use unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), popularly known as drones, for commercial purposes, according to Capt. Gilbert Kibe, director general of the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA).

Speaking during a ‘Drones East Africa Conference’ held in Nairobi on June 20-21, Kibe briefed delegates on draft regulations that will open Kenya skies to UAVs: “The policy procedures and regulations for remotely piloted aircraft systems…have been approved and will provide a roadmap to the industry,” Kibe told delegates at the event, organised by the International Quality and Productivity Centre (IQPC).…

Demand is growing for a major international programme designed to support developing countries build up their tax audit capacity and – critically – the funding is there to meet that need. Launched as a joint initiative of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation & Development (OECD) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in July 2015 after an initial pilot phase, Tax Inspectors Without Borders (TIWB) sees tax experts work side-by-side with local officials in developing and emerging markets.…

KENYA’S EDUCATION MINISTER CALLS FOR LESS GOVERNMENT MEDDLING IN AFRICAN UNIVERSITY MANAGEMENT

Kenya’s education minister has called for African governments to pull away from direct management of their country’s universities, saying such meddling is unnecessary and can hinder the development of effective management.…