<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1110" height="740" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/GettyImages-1210801808-1110x740.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-392738" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/GettyImages-1210801808-1110x740.jpg 1110w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/GettyImages-1210801808-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/GettyImages-1210801808-820x547.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/GettyImages-1210801808-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/GettyImages-1210801808-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/GettyImages-1210801808-scaled.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1110px) 100vw, 1110px" /><figcaption>Motorcycle taxi drivers wait on the corner for passengers as Samsung Electronics Co. advertising hoardings cover a building beyond in downtown Nairobi, Kenya, on Thursday, April 23, 2020. Kenya&#8217;s economic growth could slow to as low as 1% this year as effects of the coronavirus pandemic take a toll on businesses and revenue, according to the National Treasury Secretary Ukur Yatani. Photographer: Patrick Meinhardt/Bloomberg via Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



NAIROBI, Jan 20 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) &#8211; Sitting on a low bench at her shop in a Nairobi slum, Grace Wangari sifted through a handful of grains that a waiting customer had just ordered.



As she poured them into a shopping bag, the customer scrolled through her phone to pay for the purchase.



Normally, Wangari would have been paid in shilling notes, Kenya&#8217;s hard currency, but in some ways she preferred the digital payment that was instantly transferred to her phone.



&#8220;I am happy with this transaction because there is no risk of losing my stock to conmen or people who have come to take goods on credit,&#8221; said Wangari, a middle-aged trader in Mukuru Kayiaba, one of the city&#8217;s poorest slums.



The transaction happened through Sarafu, a blockchain-based community currency that is helping thousands of Kenyan slum dwellers pay for food, water and sanitary items as they battle through the COVID-19 economic downturn.



Each week, families are issued with virtual vouchers worth 400 Kenyan shillings ($4), which they can use to buy essential goods, said Roy Odhiambo, an innovation officer at Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS), one of the groups behind the project.



Vendors can then send the vouchers to Grassroots Economics, the Nairobi-based social enterprise that co-developed Sarafu (&#8220;coins&#8221; in English) with U.S.-based engineering firm BlockScience, and redeem them for cash.



Odhiambo said more than a third of the vendors in Mukuru are already signed up to the project, which launched in 2019 with the aim of helping struggling families get hold of everyday basics without worrying about having cash on hand.



Now the project is providing a lifeline for families trying to cope with the financial pain of the pandemic, he noted.



Antony Ngoka, a field coordinator with Grassroots Economics, said thousands of slum residents, who are mostly casual workers, have lost their jobs during the pandemic.



Unable to get loans from traditional banks, many become easy prey for loan sharks, he added.



But, blockchain can help poor Kenyans avoid economic exploitation, said Nelson Ochieng&#8217;, a rights activist and social worker in Kibera, Nairobi&#8217;s largest slum.



&#8220;Blockchain can foster local trade by tapping resources that are ignored by mainstream businesses. It also increases levels of trust among struggling communities,&#8221; he said.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-secure-and-transparent">SECURE AND TRANSPARENT</h2>



In Mukuru Kayiaba slum, about 5.5 miles (9 kilometres) away from Nairobi city centre, some 4,000 residents have registered with Sarafu, according to Odhiambo of KRCS.



Developed with funding from global government donors, the platform can make an average of up to 1 million Kenyan shillings ($9,0000) in daily transactions, Odhiambo said.



Unlike cash aid, which can be spent on anything, Sarafu can only be used to pay for essentials such as food, health supplies and educational resources, he explained.



And, he added, because the platform runs on blockchain, meaning all transactions are tracked and transparent, that ensures people are spending the money only on necessities.



Odhiambo said KRCS is currently working with the Danish Red Cross and Innovation Norway, the government&#8217;s business development agency, to roll out Sarafu across Kenya.



But, seeing the platform as a threat, loan sharks are using political and financial manipulation to lure Kenyans away from it, said Ochieng&#8217;, the rights activist.



Informal lenders recruit people to spread rumours that blockchain is a Ponzi scheme with no backing from local leaders, a tactic that has successfully stifled the uptake of other blockchain-based projects in the past, he explained.



&#8220;The aim of loan sharks is to divert people from innovations that are helping them access basic services in the slums without having to pay interest,&#8221; Ochieng&#8217; said.



They also pull in customers by offering much higher sums than they can get through Sarafu, with exorbitant interest rates, he added.



Violet Muraya, who sells water in Mukuru slum, said informal lenders can offer loans up to 10 times larger than anything available through the community currency.



&#8220;When people have emergencies and need huge amounts of money, they cannot use Sarafu. So, they go to loan sharks for help and end up being trapped in financial slavery,&#8221; said Muraya.



Odhiambo said the Kenya Red Cross Society is running education and awareness-raising campaigns in areas where the project has been rolled out, to reassure users that the platform is safe and fair.



&#8220;At first there was resistance &#8230; because of the propaganda. But the community has accepted this cashless transaction because they know it is not some type of betting or loan facility,&#8221; he said.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-no-one-is-going-to-sleep-hungry">&#8216;NO ONE IS GOING TO SLEEP HUNGRY&#8217;</h2>



At Isaac Makavu&#8217;s food kiosk in Mukuru, customers lined up to order his steaming rolls of baked flat bread, chatting about an upcoming Premier League football game and sharing funny stories about their day.



Makavu said Sarafu has helped people in his community avoid eviction during the pandemic by allowing them to save their cash.



Some come together to pay each other&#8217;s rent through table banking, a form of savings scheme where a group contributes a set amount of money every month and then uses that money to help members who need it.



Charities say evictions have been rife in parts of East Africa during the pandemic. In one instance in May 2020, Human Rights Watch reported more than 8,000 people living in two Nairobi slums were evicted from their homes.



&#8220;But there have been no evictions in areas where Sarafu is being used by slum communities because they were able to pay their rent on time,&#8221; Makavu said.



&#8220;No one is going to sleep hungry here because they have community currency.&#8221;



($1 = 109.9000 Kenyan shillings) (Reporting by Kagondu Njagi, Editing by Jumana Farouky and Zoe Tabary. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers the lives of people around the world who struggle to live freely or fairly. Visit http://news.trust.org)



(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2021. Click For Restrictions &#8211; https://agency.reuters.com/en/copyright.html

Nairobi Economy as Kenya Sees Major Virus Hit To Growth

Kenya slum dwellers battle COVID-19 downturn with virtual currency

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1110" height="740" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/GettyImages-1210801808-1110x740.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-392738" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/GettyImages-1210801808-1110x740.jpg 1110w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/GettyImages-1210801808-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/GettyImages-1210801808-820x547.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/GettyImages-1210801808-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/GettyImages-1210801808-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/GettyImages-1210801808-scaled.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1110px) 100vw, 1110px" /><figcaption>Motorcycle taxi drivers wait on the corner for passengers as Samsung Electronics Co. advertising hoardings cover a building beyond in downtown Nairobi, Kenya, on Thursday, April 23, 2020. Kenya&#8217;s economic growth could slow to as low as 1% this year as effects of the coronavirus pandemic take a toll on businesses and revenue, according to the National Treasury Secretary Ukur Yatani. Photographer: Patrick Meinhardt/Bloomberg via Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



MOMBASA, Kenya (Reuters) &#8211; The recent deaths from COVID-19 in Kenya of a refugee, a member of parliament and a retired civil servant all happened for the same reason: emergency help was hours away.



Nearly three quarters of Kenya’s intensive care unit (ICU) beds are in the two largest cities, Nairobi and Mombasa.



Yet the new coronavirus is spreading into rural areas where the public health system is creaking and scarce ICU units are full and turning patients away, medics round the nation told Reuters.



Christmas travel may worsen the problem &#8211; and not just in Kenya.



“That is our biggest fear now,” said John Nkengasong, head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, a branch of the African Union bloc.



“During the holiday season, there will be a tendency for large movement from capital cities to villages, remote areas, for people to connect with families. That might drive the pandemic,” he told a news conference from Ethiopia this week.



Africa is recording 10,000-12,000 cases daily, moving toward a July peak of 14,000, after most governments eased lockdowns that curbed the disease but decimated jobs.



After measures were softened, Kenya had record daily cases and deaths in November, taking the totals to nearly 90,000 infections and 1,500 fatalities&nbsp;<a href="https://graphics.reuters.com/world-coronavirus-tracker-and-maps/countries-and-territories/kenya">here</a>.



Experts say the real tally is much higher due to inadequate testing and a policy of only counting hospital deaths.



One of those was Justus Murunga, a member of parliament who died on Nov. 14 after developing breathing problems on a visit to his rural home in the Kagamega area of rural west Kenya.



When he arrived at the nearest public hospital, he was turned away because there was no oxygen.



At a private hospital, a 20-minute drive further, medics could not resuscitate him, the Nation newspaper reported.



“Had our hospital been well equipped, our brother could have been saved,” his brother Henry Washiswa was quoted as saying.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-airlifts-for-politicians">AIRLIFTS FOR POLITICIANS?</h2>



Fellow legislators suggested creating a helicopter service for politicians, drawing outrage on social media.



Kenya’s 51 million people have only 537 ICU beds and 256 ventilators, according to a July 2020 study.



“We will have a high mortality rate in the rural areas,” Chibanzi Mwachonda, secretary-general of the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union, told Reuters.



“Ambulances don’t have fuel, there’s a lack of reagents for testing, contract tracing is weak and referral hospitals are overburdened,” added Mwachonda, whose union is threatening to strike.



The health ministry did not respond to requests for interviews.



In the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya’s remote north west, ICU care is a nine-hour drive away.



That has led to six COVID-19 deaths in a camp clinic due to lack of equipment like a ventilator, a doctor there told Reuters. A 40-year-old South Sudanese woman was the latest.



In the Indian Ocean coastal county of Kilifi, critical patients are referred to ICU wards in Kwale, two hours by ferry, or Mombasa, a one-hour drive away.



The county’s chief health officer Charles Dadu Karisa recounted the case of a former government employee in his 50s who died shortly after being sent to Mombasa. “The patient may have survived if we had our own ICU facilities,” he said.



Even in Mombasa, though, ICU wards at both the biggest public and private hospitals have been full since early November.



“We have no more space,” said a doctor at The Mombasa Hospital, the largest private health facility on Kenya’s coast, lamenting that patients had died at home after being refused admission. “What do we do?”

In Kenya, COVID-19’s rural spread strains creaky healthcare

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1110" height="608" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/GettyImages-1188211633-1110x608.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-393118" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/GettyImages-1188211633-1110x608.jpg 1110w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/GettyImages-1188211633-300x164.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/GettyImages-1188211633-820x449.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/GettyImages-1188211633-768x421.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/GettyImages-1188211633-1536x842.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/GettyImages-1188211633-scaled.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1110px) 100vw, 1110px" /><figcaption>ACCRA, GHANA &#8211; NOVEMBER 16: Alibaba founder Jack Ma (C) attends the maiden awards ceremony of The Africa Netpreneur Prize Initiative (ANPI) led by the Jack Ma Foundation on November 16, 2019 in Accra, Ghana. The ANPI, which was launched in 2018, will offer 10 million U.S. dollars to 100 African entrepreneurs over a ten-year period. (Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images)</figcaption></figure>



BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) &#8211; Alibaba Group’s Cainiao is in talks with Chinese vaccine makers over COVID-19 vaccine logistics, a spokeswoman said on Thursday, as the company launched a partnership with Ethiopian Airlines to transport medicine to the Middle East and Africa.



“We are currently in discussion with some domestic COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers and international organizations on cooperation over COVID-19 vaccine logistics,” the spokeswoman said.



Cainiao, a logistics company, underpins delivery for Alibaba’s e-commerce marketplace, and it says it aims to deliver across the globe in 72 hours. The spokeswoman did not name the vaccine makers.



The company and Ethiopian Airlines launched a special cold chain air freight service to transport temperature-sensitive medicines from the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen to Africa and the rest of the world via Dubai and Addis Abba.



“This is China’s first cross-border medical cold chain route to be operated regularly and is certified to transport temperature-controlled medicines including COVID-19 vaccines,” Cainiao said in a statement.



China has several vaccine developers running the final stages of clinical trials to determine the efficacy of their COVID-19 vaccine candidates. They include Sinovac Biotech Ltd, CanSinoBio and China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm).



Cold chain storage and transportation have become increasingly important during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has killed nearly 1.5 million people. The promising Pfizer vaccine, for instance, is required to be stored at temperatures of minus 70 degrees Celsius (-94 F) or below.

Awards Ceremony Of Africa Netpreneur Prize 2019 Held In Ghana

Alibaba’s Cainiao says it is in talks with Chinese vaccine makers over logistics

ADDIS ABABA/NAIROBI (Reuters) &#8211; Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said on Saturday that military operations in the restive region of Tigray are complete and federal troops control the regional capital, a major development in a three-week-old war that has shaken the Horn of Africa.



Abiy’s government has been trying to quell a rebellion by a powerful ethnic faction that dominated the central government for decades before he came to power in 2018. Thousands of people are believed to have been killed, and nearly 44,000 have fled to Sudan, in a conflict that has called into question whether Abiy can hold together fractious ethnic groups in Ethiopia, Africa’s second most populous country.



“I am pleased to share that we have completed and ceased the military operations in the Tigray region,” the prime minister said in a tweet. Less than an hour earlier, he said in a statement, “The federal government is now fully in control of the city of Mekelle”.



However the leader of Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), whose forces have been fighting Ethiopian troops, said the group was not giving up.



“Their brutality can only add (to) our resolve to fight these invaders to the last,” TPLF leader Debretsion Gebremichael told Reuters in a text message. Asked by Reuters if that meant his forces would continue fighting, he replied: “Certainly. This is about defending our right to self determination.”



There was no immediate response from the government.



In his statement, Abiy said federal police would continue searching for and detaining TPLF “criminals” and would bring them to court. The prime minister has called the offensive a law and order operation.



It was not clear if any TPLF leaders had surrendered. Debretsion said in another text message that their forces were withdrawing from around Mekelle.



Claims from all sides are difficult to verify since phone and internet links to Tigray have been down and access tightly controlled since the fighting began on Nov. 4.



Authorities had said earlier on Saturday that government forces were in the final stages of an offensive in the region and would take care to protect civilians in Mekelle, a city of 500,000 people.



Abiy said the army had secured the release of thousands of troops from the army’s Northern Command, which is based in Tigray, who he said had been held hostage by the TPLF.



RELATED COVERAGE<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ethiopia-conflict-control/ethiopian-military-has-taken-full-control-of-tigray-capital-chief-of-staff-says-idUSKBN2880MG"></a><a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ethiopia-conflict-control/ethiopian-military-has-taken-full-control-of-tigray-capital-chief-of-staff-says-idUSKBN2880MG">Ethiopian military has taken &#8216;full control&#8217; of Tigray capital, chief of staff says</a>



Federal troops had also taken control of the airport, the regional administration office and other key facilities, Abiy said.



The government had given the TPLF an ultimatum that expired on Wednesday to lay down arms or face an assault on the city.



It was not clear if federal forces had seized weapons stocks on Saturday. The government said in the first week of the conflict that a target of its airstrikes was military hardware seized by Tigrayan forces.



Regional diplomats and experts have said that a rapid military victory might not signal the end of the conflict.



Two diplomats told Reuters it was likely that Tigrayan forces had withdrawn from Mekelle before the government’s push into the city, raising the prospect of a protracted guerrilla war.



The TPLF has a history of guerrilla resistance and used Tigray’s highland terrain and foreign borders to its advantage through years of armed struggle in the 1980s against a Marxist government.



The prime minister has so far rebuffed attempts at mediation. Abiy accuses Tigrayan leaders of starting the war by attacking federal troops at a base in Tigray. The TPLF says the attack was a pre-emptive strike.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-no-word-on-casualties">NO WORD ON CASUALTIES</h2>



Abiy did not mention in his statements whether there had been casualties in the offensive to capture Mekelle.



Rights groups have been concerned that an assault on the city could lead to significant civilian casualties.



The prime minister’s spokeswoman, Billene Seyoum, had said earlier on Saturday: “The safety of Ethiopians in Mekelle and Tigray region continues as priority for the federal government”.



TPLF leader Debretsion told Reuters in text messages earlier on Saturday that Mekelle was under “heavy bombardment”.



Billene said: “The Ethiopian National Defense Forces do not have a mission to bombard its own city and people. Mekelle remains one of Ethiopia’s key cities and the efforts to bring to justice the criminal clique will not entail discriminatory ‘bombardment’ as alluded by TPLF and their propagandists.”



Debretsion also accused the military from the neighbouring country of Eritrea of crossing the border and raiding refugee camps in Tigray to capture refugees who have fled Eritrea in the past.



The Eritrean government has not responded to calls from Reuters for more than two weeks.



United Nations refugee agency chief Filippo Grandi said on Saturday that he was deeply concerned about the 100,000 Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia, and what he called unconfirmed reports of violence against them.



The TPLF and Eritrea are archenemies: the TPLF was in charge in Addis Ababa when Ethiopia and Eritrea fought a war from 1998-2000. But Eritrea and Abiy have warm relations. The Ethiopian government has denied TPLF accusations that Eritrean troops are operating on Ethiopian soil.



Eritrea is one of the world’s most repressive nations and around 10% of the population has fled.



Tigrayans, who make up about 6% of the Ethiopian population of 115 million, dominated the government until Abiy took power two years ago. He pledged to unite Ethiopians and introduce freedoms after years of state repression that filled jails with tens of thousands of political prisoners.



His government also put senior Tigrayan officials on trial for crimes such as corruption, torture and murder. The Tigrayan region saw those trials as discrimination.

TOPSHOT-ETHIOPIA-UNREST

Ethiopian military operation in Tigray is complete, prime minister says

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1110" height="767" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/2020-11-25T090341Z_1_LYNXMPEGAO0H0_RTROPTP_4_CANADA-POLITICS-1110x767.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-392778" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/2020-11-25T090341Z_1_LYNXMPEGAO0H0_RTROPTP_4_CANADA-POLITICS-1110x767.jpg 1110w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/2020-11-25T090341Z_1_LYNXMPEGAO0H0_RTROPTP_4_CANADA-POLITICS-300x207.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/2020-11-25T090341Z_1_LYNXMPEGAO0H0_RTROPTP_4_CANADA-POLITICS-820x567.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/2020-11-25T090341Z_1_LYNXMPEGAO0H0_RTROPTP_4_CANADA-POLITICS-768x531.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/2020-11-25T090341Z_1_LYNXMPEGAO0H0_RTROPTP_4_CANADA-POLITICS-1536x1062.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/2020-11-25T090341Z_1_LYNXMPEGAO0H0_RTROPTP_4_CANADA-POLITICS-scaled.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1110px) 100vw, 1110px" /><figcaption>Canada&#8217;s new Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (bottom row C) poses with his cabinet after their swearing-in ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa November 4, 2015. REUTERS/Chris Wattie TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY </figcaption></figure>



(Thomson Reuters Foundation) &#8211; U.S. President-elect Joe Biden has pledged to appoint a diverse cabinet that &#8220;looks like America,&#8221; promising to bring more women into the top echelons of government.



The incoming Democrat has named Avril Haines to be director of national intelligence and Janet Yellen as secretary of the Department of Treasury &#8211; both would be the first women to hold those positions.



Biden&#8217;s promise of a more gender-balanced cabinet follows examples set in several countries spanning the globe.



Here are seven countries already leading the way:



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-rwanda">RWANDA</h2>



The small East African nation of Rwanda boasts by far the best record for female representation in politics.



Nearly two-thirds of parliamentary seats and 52% of cabinet positions are held by women. The speaker of the lower house of parliament is a woman, and female ministers hold portfolios which include information and communications technology and trade and industry.



The high participation of women is attributed to Rwanda&#8217;s 2003 constitution, drafted after the 1994 genocide, that mandates no less than 30% of political seats are held by women.



The Rwanda Women Parliamentary Forum, a cross-party women&#8217;s caucus, has helped expand the number of female-held seats with a strategy of having veteran lawmakers run for open seats and ushering in newcomers to reserved seats.



&#8220;Whenever women gain, we all gain as a country. There can be no true progress without equality,&#8221; tweeted Rwandan President Paul Kagame on International Women&#8217;s Day in March 2020.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-ethiopia">ETHIOPIA</h2>



Ethiopia, Africa&#8217;s second most populous nation, has taken steps to increase gender parity in high-level government positions since Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took office in 2018.



Former diplomat Sahle-Work Zewde was elected the first woman president in October 2018, and women&#8217;s rights lawyer Meaza Ashenafi was appointed its first female chief justice the following month.



Ahmed also downsized the 34-member cabinet to 20, with 45% of ministerial portfolios including transport, urban development and construction held by women.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-canada">CANADA</h2>



Canada&#8217;s cabinet became gender-equal for the first time five years ago when newly elected Prime Minister Justin Trudeau introduced a 50/50 quota of men and women.



Asked why he made gender parity a priority, Trudeau said: &#8220;Because it&#8217;s 2015.&#8221;



The quota remains in place with 18 men and 18 women. The most senior woman is Chrystia Freeland, Trudeau&#8217;s deputy and Minister of Finance.



The 2015 appointees included Canada&#8217;s first indigenous justice minister and attorney general, Jody Wilson-RayBould. In 2019, however, she was kicked out of Trudeau&#8217;s Liberal Party after a falling out over the SNC Lavalin scandal, in which Trudeau was alleged to have pressured her to help the major engineering and construction company avoid a corruption trial.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-colombia">COLOMBIA</h2>



When Colombia&#8217;s conservative president Ivan Duque took office in 2018, he appointed equal numbers of men and women to his cabinet in a first for the country, including the first women to hold the influential post of interior minister.



Currently, women hold six ministerial positions out of his 16-strong cabinet, and Marta Lucia Ramirez is Colombia&#8217;s first female vice president.



&#8220;It is important that the Colombian woman assumes leadership positions,&#8221; Duque said on social media.



While Latin America is known for its macho culture, there has been a generation of female heads of state since 2007 from Brazil&#8217;s Dilma Rousseff to Michelle Bachelet in Chile, Laura Chinchilla in Costa Rica and Cristina Fernandez in Argentina.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-south-africa">SOUTH AFRICA</h2>



In June 2019, newly elected South African President Cyril Ramaphosa was praised when half of his appointed ministers were women for the first time in the country&#8217;s history.



This move was described by the ruling African National Congress party as &#8220;a good balance of youth, gender, geographical spread and experience.&#8221;



While 14 of the 28 ministerial positions were filled by women, 47% of the overall cabinet, including the president and his deputy, was female, falling just shy of an equal split.



Despite some criticism that the top positions such as president and deputy president are still filled by men, others say it is a step in the right direction in a country with one of the world&#8217;s highest femicide rates.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-iceland">ICELAND</h2>



The tiny North Atlantic nation of Iceland has a long tradition of electing women as head of state, dating back to 1980 when Vigdís Finnbogadóttir became president. She served four terms, until 1996.



Iceland has had a female leader in 22 out of the past 50 years.



Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir, Iceland&#8217;s second female leader, took power in 2017. Of the 10 ministerial posts, four are held by women, including the justice ministry.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-new-zealand">NEW ZEALAND</h2>



Incumbent Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern won a landslide re-election in October and has built New Zealand&#8217;s most diverse parliament, with a record number of women and minorities.



There are eight women in the new 20-member cabinet, or 40%, falling short of Ardern&#8217;s goal of a gender balanced cabinet.



Still, women make up half of the top 10 cabinet positions, including the first female foreign minister, Nanaia Mahuta, an indigenous Maori woman with a distinct facial tattoo.



Ardern, who became the world&#8217;s youngest female head of government in 2017 at age 37, said her second-term cabinet represented &#8220;renewal&#8221; in a country that was the first to give women the right to vote in 1893.



(Reporting by Anastasia Moloney in Bogota; Nita Bhalla in Nairobi; Jack Graham in Toronto; Thin Lei Win in Rome; Kim Harrisberg in Johannesburg; Rina Chandran in Bangkok and Nellie Peyton in Dakar. Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers the lives of people around the world who struggle to live freely or fairly. Visit http://news.trust.org)

Canada’s new Prime Minister Justin Trudeau poses with his cabinet after their swearing-in ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa

Which countries shatter glass ceilings with gender-balanced cabinets?

<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1110" height="740" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/GettyImages-1210801808-1110x740.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-392738" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/GettyImages-1210801808-1110x740.jpg 1110w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/GettyImages-1210801808-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/GettyImages-1210801808-820x547.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/GettyImages-1210801808-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/GettyImages-1210801808-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/GettyImages-1210801808-scaled.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1110px) 100vw, 1110px" /><figcaption>Motorcycle taxi drivers wait on the corner for passengers as Samsung Electronics Co. advertising hoardings cover a building beyond in downtown Nairobi, Kenya, on Thursday, April 23, 2020. Kenya&#8217;s economic growth could slow to as low as 1% this year as effects of the coronavirus pandemic take a toll on businesses and revenue, according to the National Treasury Secretary Ukur Yatani. Photographer: Patrick Meinhardt/Bloomberg via Getty Images</figcaption></figure></div>



NAIROBI, Nov 25 (Reuters) &#8211; Kenya’s economic growth is expected to bounce back next year, the World Bank said on Wednesday, as it emerges from a projected decline in output this year caused by the coronavirus crisis.



East Africa’s biggest economy is expected to contract by 1.0-1.5% this year as the COVID-19 pandemic pushes 2 million people into poverty and takes a toll on the government’s finances, the World Bank said in a new report.



“The economy is projected to rebound relatively quickly in 2021, lifting real GDP by 6.9% year on year,” the bank said in its twice a year review of the Kenyan economy, boosted by the resumption of learning in all educational institutions in January.



The government forecast 6.4% growth next year.



The World Bank said its forecast for growth in 2021 still faced significant risks, including the uncertainty around the length and severity of the pandemic, unpredictable weather conditions and the pace of the global economic recovery.



Kenya’s economy contracted by 0.4% in the first half of this year, compared with an expansion of 5.4% a year earlier.



The bank said the pandemic increased poverty by 4 percentage points as incomes dropped and people were laid off from work.



“The unemployment rate increased sharply, approximately doubling to 10.4% in the second quarter,” it said, citing official data.



Kenya’s total debt jumped to 65.6% of gross domestic product in June this year from 62.4% a year earlier, the World Bank said, as the fiscal deficit widened.



The bank urged the government to take advantage of debt service relief offered by richer nations, to free up liquidity that would have gone into repayments.



Finance Minister Ukur Yatani told Reuters last week that the government planned to make a final decision soon on joining the G20’s Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI), aimed at helping poor countries weather the pandemic.



“As economic conditions allow, policy should progressively prioritise returning to a medium-term fiscal consolidation path,” the World Bank said. (Reporting by Duncan Miriri; Editing by Edmund Blair)

Kenya’s economic growth to rebound next year, World Bank says

How the Business Development Fund has benefited SMEs in Rwanda

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ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) &#8211; Ethiopia sought to tighten its grip on the rebellious Tigray region on Friday by appointing a new local leader during a military offensive that has killed hundreds and shaken the wider Horn of Africa region.
Federal troops’ 10-day push against the northern state has sent refugees flooding into Sudan and raised fears it may suck in Eritrea or weaken an African force opposing Islamist militants in Somalia if Ethiopia diverts troops from there.
It may also blemish the reputation of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for a 2018 peace pact with Eritrea and had won plaudits for opening Ethiopia’s economy and easing a repressive political system.
Abiy accuses the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which rules the mountainous region of more than five million people, of treason and terrorism. They say he has systematically persecuted Tigrayans since taking office in April 2018.
The conflict began last week when Abiy says the TPLF attacked a military base, since when his army has been carrying out air strikes and ground combat which the government says has “liberated” west Tigray.
Abiy, who comes from Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group the Oromo, said parliament had named former Addis Ababa university professor and deputy minister for science and higher education Mulu Nega, 52, as chief executive of Tigray.
“The Chief Executive will recruit and appoint heads to lead executive organs of the regional state from political parties legally operating in the region,” he tweeted.
Current Tigray leader Debretsion Gebremichael, who won a local election in September despite central government orders to cancel it, has been formally accused along with other TPLF officials of treason, armed rebellion and terrorism.
They say their region has been invaded.
There was no immediate response from Debretsion or other TPLF figures to Friday’s appointment. A dissertation by Mulu, published on the web site of Twente University in the Netherlands where he obtained a doctorate in 2012, states his place of birth as Tigray.
<h2 class="Headline-headline-2FXIq Headline-black-OogpV ArticleBody-heading-3h695">ETHIOPIAN AT AU REMOVED</h2>
News also came on Friday that the African Union (AU) had dismissed its security head, an Ethiopian national, after Abiy’s government accused him of disloyalty.
The bloc’s chair Moussa Faki Mahamat ordered the removal of Gebreegziabher Mebratu Melese in a Nov. 11 memo seen by Reuters after Ethiopia’s defence ministry wrote with concerns.
An AU official confirmed the two letters. The defence ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Horn of Africa expert Rashid Abdi said Gebreegziabher was Tigrayan and his departure from the AU post was part of the Abiy government’s efforts to sideline prominent Tigrayans.
“The purging of competent Tigrayan officials in the midst of the conflict is not good for the morale of the (security and military) services,” he said, referring also to other removals of Tigrayan officials since the military offensive began.
“It also plays into the notion that this is essentially an ethnic war masked as a centre-periphery power struggle.”
Abiy’s opening of political space since taking office in 2018 has exposed ethnic fractures in Africa’s second most populous nation of 115 million people. Before the Tigray flare-up, clashes killed hundreds and uprooted hundreds of thousands.
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Communications in Tigray are cut and media have been barred, but security sources have told Reuters hundreds of combatants have been killed on both sides.
Both sides have accused each other of harming civilians.
Rights group Amnesty International said on Thursday that scores and possibly hundreds of civilians were stabbed and hacked to death in the region on Nov. 9, citing witnesses who blamed the TPLF. Debretsion denied that in comments to Reuters.
More than 11,000 Ethiopian refugees &#8211; half of them children &#8211; have gone to Sudan since fighting started and aid agencies say the situation in Tigray is becoming dire. Even before the conflict, 600,000 people there were reliant on food aid.
Ethiopia’s national army is one of Africa’s largest and highest-trained. But its best fighters are from Tigray and much of its hardware is also there, under the Northern Command.
Ethiopia hosts the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa. Nearly 4,400 Ethiopian troops serve in its Somalia peacekeeping force.
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Ethiopia names new Tigray head as conflict boils

NAIROBI (Reuters) &#8211; Tanzanians headed to the polls on Wednesday for presidential and parliamentary elections that President John Magufuli hopes will hand him another five-year term despite criticism from rights groups that the government has stifled political dissent.



Magufuli’s main challengers include Tundu Lissu, who was shot 16 times in 2017, and former foreign minister Bernard Membe. The attack on Lissu, who returned from three years in exile in July, has never been solved.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="800" height="600" src="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/shutterstock_207995749.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-374198" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/shutterstock_207995749.jpg 800w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/shutterstock_207995749-300x225.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/shutterstock_207995749-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/shutterstock_207995749-696x522.jpg 696w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/shutterstock_207995749-600x450.jpg 600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /><figcaption>Kenya, Tanzania. Shutterstock </figcaption></figure>



People turned out early to cast their ballots in Dar es Salaam on Wednesday morning.



“The voting process is good, calm,” local pastor Clement Fumbo told Reuters after voting. “I expect the election to continue to be peaceful, fair and free.”



But many Tanzanians complained online that they were are experiencing problems accessing social media platforms.



“Authorities are now trying to block VPN services,” said ProtonVPN, an open source VPN provider, on Twitter.



On Tuesday, both Twitter and Internet blockage monitor NetBlocks reported widespread problems.



“We’re seeing some blocking and throttling of Twitter,” Twitter in a statement from its public policy account.







East Africa’s third-largest economy has recorded average growth of close to 7% over the last four years, according to official figures, as the government invested billions of dollars in infrastructure including a new railway, a hydropower dam and planes for the national airline.



“THIRSTY FOR JUSTICE”



The government projects economic growth of 5.5% in 2020 after COVID-19 hit key sectors such as tourism. But the World Bank predicts growth of only 2.5%.



Magufuli is promising voters that new infrastructure projects will fuel growth of at least 8% soon.



“We have told Tanzanians the importance of investing on transport infrastructure&#8230;for the betterment of this nation,” Magufuli said on Tuesday in Dodoma at his last rally.



Lissu told his final rally in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam that he was confident of winning. “Tanzanians are hungry and thirsty for justice,” he said. “It’s time to decide.”



More than 29 million people are registered to vote out of 58 million citizens. They will choose from 15 presidential candidates and elect lawmakers for 264 parliamentary seats.







The ruling party CCM, a version of which has held power since independence in 1961, won the presidency with 58% of votes in 2015 and currently holds about three-quarters of parliamentary seats. Tanzania uses a first-past-the post system.



The opposition and rights groups say authorities have cracked down on critical voices by closing down media outlets and banning public rallies during Magufuli’s first term.



Last week, a coalition of 65 international rights groups issued a letter accusing the government of harassing NGOs and abusing the power of the justice system.



“Tanzania’s criminal justice system has &#8230; been misused to target those who criticize the government,” the letter read.



Opposition parties said police disrupted their campaigns and electoral authorities disqualified dozens of their parliamentary candidates.



The government has previously denied any crackdown and the National Electoral Commission has rejected accusations of unfair treatment.



In the semi-autonomous archipelago of Zanzibar, the opposition presidential candidate was detained and later released as he tried to vote early on Tuesday after at least nine people were shot dead by security forces.

shutterstock_354115238

Tanzania president Magufuli seeks second term as polls open

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CNBC Africa spoke with Nizar Juma, Chairman of Jubilee Holdings Limited on the role of the insurance sector in economic recovery on the continent.

How the insurance sector can play a role in Africa’s recovery

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According to data from the National Institute of Statistics, the value of Kenyan exports in the first eight months of 2020 increased by $183.9 million to $3.89 billion compared to the same period last year. Alex Owiti, Communication Consultant joins CNBC Africa for more.

Kenya sees increase in value of exports despite COVID-19

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Online food delivery is one of the fastest growing online segments and the food and beverage market is expected to reach $1Trillion by 2030.

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News of Ugandan opposition party, NUP’s headquarters being raided by Ugandan security forces made international headlines. CNBC Africa spoke to Analyst, Kenneth Agutamba to get the full story and to discuss what this means for the future of opposition leader, Bobi Wine’s campaign.

Ugandan opposition party headquarters raided by police

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Since the beginning of the pandemic, we’ve seen certain sporting activities return to our televisions slightly different than we had known them before. From the NBA Finals and the Champion’s League opting to exclude spectators all together; to events like the French Open allowing for only a percentage of their seats to be occupied by fans; new measures reducing contact is charactering the return of sports. So, could this be the next step for the East African sports industry? CNBC Africa spoke to Sports Analyst, Sharon Allela for more.

How COVID-19 impacts the resumption of sporting events in East Africa

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How the revised land transfer fees could impact Rwanda’s investment landscape

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As the world marks World Food Day today, CNBC Africa spoke with John Macharia, Country Manager, AGRA, Kenya on Africa&#8217;s preparedness in handling food systems shocks and the needed global action to improve the systems.

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Kenya slum dwellers battle COVID-19 downturn with virtual currency

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