Unlocking East Africa's Potential: The Transformative Role of Vocational Training
In Kenya’s bustling Gikomba Market, thousands of artisans hammer, stitch, and weld daily - yet 83% of them are locked out of formal employment. Across East Africa, the informal sector dominates, employing millions while offering limited paths to economic stability. This disparity reveals a critical challenge: how do we close the gap between mere survival and prosperity?
East Africa’s Urban Flooding Epidemic: The Promise of Urban Reforestation to Unblock the Region’s Drain
Flooding in East Africa has resulted in very high avoidable casualties. It is caused both by natural factors like climate and landscape, as well as infrastructural shortcomings. The floods weaken existing infrastructure, causing even more susceptibility to flooding in the future.
Setting the Stage: Assessing the Impact of Kenyan and Rwandan Bids to Host the Grammy Academy and Formula 1
Is this East Africa’s moment on the global stage? On December 9th 2024, President William Ruto revealed that Kenya had invested Ksh 500 million in a bid to host the Grammys. Similarly, Rwandan President Paul Kagame announced his nation’s bid to host a Formula One (F1) Grand Prix.
Hackers, Heists and High Stakes: Safeguarding East Africa’s Financial Future
In the span of a weeks in 2024, East Africa’s financial sector was struck by a series of incidents, exposing critical vulnerabilities. In Uganda, a billion Ugandan shillings (UGX) were stolen by G4S guards from a bullion van enroute to Kampala. At the Bank of Uganda, hackers siphoned UGX 60 billion in merely 60 seconds - a sobering reminder of the high stakes in digital finance.
Tanzania’s Gender Bond: A New Era for Impact Financing in East Africa
The African Development Bank’s article on affirmative finance action in Africa placed the disparity in the financing gap facing women in Africa at $41 billion – a damning figure. While the female entrepreneurship rate in Sub-Saharan Africa is 25.9%, three-fourths of women on the continent remain financially excluded. In a bid to contest this trend, enters Tanzania’s Jasiri Bond – the first gender bond issued in sub-Saharan Africa.
Chalk & Change: Comparing the Efficacy of Uganda & Kenya's National Curriculums
Education is a powerful force for change - a key tool for social mobility and an experience shared by many. While exam stress and institutional discipline resonate with most learners, it is worth examining the underlying structures that shape educational systems. We must stop to wonder why schooling is structured as it is. Do existing institutional frameworks truly foster equity?
Productive Use of Electricity: How Technology, Financing, and Market Integration Frameworks Can Turn Electricity Access into Agricultural Efficiency
In East Africa, cultivation during the dry season is impossible for most farmers. Yet, innovative solutions are emerging to address this challenge. Consider this testimonial from a Kenyan farmer: ‘I have water all the time. Even during the dry season, I can plant crops as I wait for the rains to come.’
Unveiling East Africa’s Middle Class: Opportunities for Growth in Retail, Restaurants, Healthcare, and Education Among An Elusive Demographic
The middle class. Heralded as the engine of economic renewal and societal transformation, broadly defined, consists of individuals and households that fall between the lower and upper-income brackets, typically distinguished and delineated by their purchasing power, level of education and aspirational lifestyles. Whoever can uncover the hidden identity and patterns of the often overlooked middle class wields great power, as this segment is integral in generating profit and driving regional transformation.
The State of Surveillance in Kenya: The Precarious Balance Between National Security and Privacy Rights Amidst Nationwide Disappearances
Nairobi has been awash with a sudden resurgence of abductions and disappearances of personalities known to critique the sitting government. These kidnappings have become endemic to the Kenyan capital following the #RejectFinanceBill2024 protests that ravaged Nairobi and wider parts of the country from June to August 2024.
