Strategic Food Reserves

$14 mln

has been set aside by the Kenyan Government in the current financial year to purchase maize both locally and abroad to boost the food reserves

ISTOCKKenya said on August 13 that it plans to increase its strategic food reserve to 8 million bags of maize in the medium term to boost food security.

Eugene Wamalwa, Cabinet Secretary in the Ministry Of Devolution and ASAL Areas, told journalists in Nairobi that $14 million has been set aside in the current financial year to purchase maize both locally and abroad to boost the food reserves.

Data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation indicates that the country produces approximately 39 million bags of maize annually against a consumption of 46 million bags. The shortfall is met through imports from the international markets as well as through informal trade from Uganda and Tanzania, Wamalwa said. To guarantee more maize production, he said, the government is enhancing investment in irrigation as well as fertilizer subsidies to maize farmers.

Uganda

Strengthened Economic Growth

Uganda’s central bank, the Bank of Uganda, said the country’s economy will grow at 6.3 percent in the medium term. Emmanuel Tumusiime Mutebile, Governor of the Bank of Uganda, told reporters that economic growth continues to strengthen, while the real GDP growth for financial year 2017/18 is estimated at 5.5 percent compared to 3.9 percent in 2016/17. He said the growth is supported by public infrastructure investments, improving agricultural productivity, recovery in foreign direct investment, and strengthening private sector credit growth. He noted that this is partly as a result of the easing monetary policy. About the core inflation forecast, Mutebile said it will continue rising and peak in the range of 6-7 percent in the second half of financial year 2018/19, but will stabilize around the medium-term target of 5 percent by end of 2019.

Ghana

Death of UN Icon

Kofi Annan, one of the world’s most celebrated diplomats and a charismatic symbol of the United Nations (UN), who rose through its ranks to become the first black African secretary general of the UN, has died at the age of 80.

His foundation announced his death in Switzerland on August 18 in a tweet, saying he died after a short unspecified illness. Annan was born on April 8, 1938 into an elite family in Kumasi, Ghana, the son of a provincial governor and grandson of two tribal chiefs. Annan spent virtually his entire career as an administrator in the UN. His aristocratic style, cool-tempered elegance and political savvy helped guide his ascent to become its seventh secretary general, and the first hired from within. He served two terms, from January 1, 1997 to December 31, 2006 and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize jointly with the UN in 2001.

Ethiopia

Boosting Tourism

Ethiopia is working toward enhancing its hospitality industry capacity and welcome more foreign tourists, said an official with the tourism ministry. Ethiopia earned $3.5 billion from 934,000 tourists who visited the country in the Ethiopian Fiscal Year 2010 (2017/18) that ended on July 7, said Gezahegn Abate, Public and International Relations Director of the Ethiopia Ministry of Culture and Tourism (MoCIT). Abate mentioned the MoCIT’s work in attracting tourists from the world’s most populous nation, China, which he said has shown a steady increase in the past several years despite the unrest the East African country went through since 2016. Chinese tourists are the third largest group of tourists to Ethiopia, only surpassed in numbers by tourists from the United States and UK. Ethiopia earned $169.6 million from 453,017 Chinese tourists that visited the country in 2017.

China

Biosafety Lab

On August 7, China put into operation a high-level biosafety lab in Harbin, capital of northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province. The first biosafety level-4 lab (BSL-4) for large animals was accredited by China National Accreditation Service for Conformity Assessment, with BSL-4 being the highest biosafety level. The national animal disease control lab could boost the country’s research on and prevention and control of highly infectious diseases, according to the Harbin Veterinary Research Institute under the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the lab’s operator. It will conduct animal testing on pathogens of all known major infectious diseases, the institute said. The lab will also work with other institutes on joint research of prevention and control of highly infectious diseases in a bid to safeguard the livestock industry and public health, it said.

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