Beyond Checklists: What New AML/CFT Regulations Mean for Banks, Fintechs and SACCOs
In September 2025, Kenya’s financial regulator issued compliance notices to 35 savings and credit cooperatives (SACCOs), warning of sanctions for failures in anti-money laundering controls. The message was clear across East Africa’s financial sector: the era of light-touch supervision had come to an end. From amendments to Kenya’s Proceeds of Crime and Anti-Money Laundering Act to...
East Africa’s Export Surge: Momentum or Transformation
While global trade struggles through headwinds of protectionism and geopolitical tensions, East Africa is chartering a different course. In Q2 of 2025, exports from the East African Community (EAC) rose by 40.5% year-on-year to $18.6 billion.
Seizing the Fiscal Window: How a Weakening US Dollar is Reshaping East Africa’s Economic Horizon
For the better part of the last decade, the global economic narrative has been dominated by a singular, suffocating protagonist: the 'King Dollar'. Its reign has been absolute, exporting inflation to the Global South with ruthless efficiency and crushing emerging market currencies under its boot.
The Dream Deferred: Why East Africa’s Monetary Union Remains Out of Reach
On November 30th, 2013, when the East African Community(EAC) unveiled the Monetary Union Protocol, the mood across the region was almost celebratory. A single currency by 2024 felt like the next chapter of an integration story that had already delivered a customs union, a common market, and unprecedented cross-border movement.
Yuan Express: What Kenya’s Ditching of the Dollar on its Chinese-Built Railway Means
Kenya has made a bold and unprecedented financial move by converting its multi-billion-dollar Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) loan from the Export–Import Bank of China from US dollars to Chinese Yuan. What might appear to be a mere accounting adjustment is, in fact, a decision that might save Kenya hundreds of millions of dollars annually while drawing Kenya closer into China’s financial orbit.
Demystifying Central Bank Digital Currencies: The East African Opportunity
Money is more than coins and paper; it is the language of trade and a reflection of sovereignty. And, as we enter an increasingly digital era, the very nature of money is changing. At the heart of this transformation lies the idea of the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).
Beyond the Shoreline: Building East Africa’s Blue Finance Ecosystem
East Africa’s extensive aquatic capital, from its Indian Ocean coastline to its Great Lakes, represents a monumental opportunity to drive climate-resilient growth and socioeconomic transformation. However, this potential is constrained by a significant financing gap.
Ethiopia’s Path to Financial Inclusion: Leveraging Digital Banking
Ethiopia has long been an outlier in the region when it comes to financial inclusion. While neighbouring countries embraced mobile money and digital banking, Ethiopia kept to its more traditional route. Yet the last decade has seen the nation begin to reroute, slowly but surely, from exclusion to inclusion, from cash to digital, and from isolation to innovation.
Kenya’s Shift in IMF Engagement: Fiscal Freedom or Miscalculation?
Last year, Kenya witnessed widespread protests driven by public discontent over tax hikes, rising living costs, and its government’s economic policies. These demonstrations hinted not-so-subtly at growing frustrations with Kenya’s fiscal management, particularly with its reliance on external debt and the stringent, unforgiving austerity measures linked to International Monetary Fund (IMF) programs.
