Washington, DC — President Obama will meet Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday following the U.S. leader's last address to the United Nations General Assembly as president.

Obama will also participate in a 'Leaders Summit on Refugees',which U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power called "one of the centerpieces of the President’s trip this year". Obama will host the summit along with Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and other leaders. Power  spoke in a media call on Friday along with Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications Ben Rhodes.

On Wednesday, Obama will address the the U.S.-Africa Business Forum, which is hosted by Commerce Secretary Penny Spritzer and former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg. Rhodes said the Forum will focus on "three African countries in particular that have been on the move — Nigeria, Tunisia, and Cote D’Ivoire," Rhodes said.

"We'll also be highlighting the administration’s efforts to promote the U.S.-Africa Economic Partnership, including the range of U.S. financial and technical tools that support U.S. businesses and investors who are working in Africa," he said.

Excerpts from press call on September 16 by Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications Ben Rhodes and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power to preview the president's trip to the United Nations General Assembly

MR. RHODES: On Tuesday, the President will give his address to the U.N. General Assembly.  I think with respect to the speech, what he will want to do is step back and review some of the progress that's been made over the last eight years, but also review some of the trends that have been shaping our international order for many years and that have led up to a really critical moment as the international community responds to a range of different crises. …

Following the address to the U.N. General Assembly, the President will have a bilateral meeting with President Buhari of Nigeria.  This has clearly been a priority for us in terms of investing in the success of the Nigerian government as they deal with a range of very difficult challenges.  I think the President will comment President Buhari for the accomplishments that he’s made during this first year in office following a successful democratic transition.  He’ll want to discuss ways that the United States can continue to support the governance, security, and economic reform efforts within Nigeria.

They’ll certainly discuss cooperation against the Islamic State’s West Africa Province, which is also known as Boko Haram, as well as the next steps for responding to the humanitarian emergency in Northeast Nigeria and how we can engage Niger Delta stakeholders in a dialogue to end the militancy that has caused so many challenges in the region.  So a very important opportunity for the President to meet with the leader of the largest Africa country. …

On Wednesday, September 21st, the President will participate in the U.S.-Africa Business Forum.  And this follows up on a longstanding priority of the administration to promote trade, investment, and deeper commercial and business ties between the United States and Africa.

And when we hosted the African heads of state here in Washington, we had a similar event.  At that event two years ago, which was the largest that any U.S. President has ever held with African heads of state, we were able to work with the Department of Commerce and Bloomberg Philanthropies to co-host the African Business Forum, and will partner with those same organizations this time around.

At that forum, we had 200 of the top U.S. and African CEOs and dozens of African heads of state come together for a day that focused on how to build and capitalize on Africa’s enormous economic potential.  And out of that forum, $33 billion in public and private sector investments and commitments were announced, and these are partnerships that are already helping to grow economies and create jobs and develop new industries.

And our approach to supporting development in Africa has put a real premium on trying to accelerate economic growth that is broad-based and high-quality to supplement what we do through our development assistance in areas like food security, power, and health.

So at this forum, we’ll be able to take stock of the progress that’s been made since the 2014 Africa Business Forum. And we’ll focus on partnerships between the United States and Africa that are solving concrete problems and enhancing growth, and we have four areas that we’re particularly focused on.

One is how diversified economies can transform risk into opportunity.  Another is how infrastructure development and sustainable growth go together.  Third is how innovation and technology can help promote effective, high-quality and sustainable economic growth.  And the fourth is how are we shaping a 21st century workforce.  All of these issues, together, I think speak to how Africa is poised to really continue to take off in terms of economic growth and delivering better opportunities for people on the continent.

The forum will feature three African countries in particular that have been on the move — Nigeria, Tunisia, and Cote D’Ivoire.  Of course, each of these has also pursued democratic transitions of government in recent years, and so it’s also an opportunity to highlight the interconnection between our support for democracy and our support for development.

With those countries in the spotlight, we’ll also have the opportunity to work with other heads of state and CEOs who will be present who can speak to their efforts to enhance broader U.S.-Africa trade and investment.

We’ll also be highlighting the administration’s efforts to promote the U.S.-Africa Economic Partnership, including the range of U.S. financial and technical tools that support U.S. businesses and investors who are working in Africa.  Over the last eight years, through our Doing Business in Africa campaign, the United States government has expanded our presence and engagement in Africa, including by opening new commercial service offices and supporting our businesses that are finding opportunities to invest in Africa.

And our Trade Africa Initiative has worked to help countries eliminate barriers to trade within Africa and between Africa and the United States.  And this is helping create markets for more U.S. products, and it's supporting the utilization of the African Growth and Opportunity Act, which was successfully renewed as well.  So this will speak to a centerpiece of the President's Africa policy, and we're very much looking forward to that opportunity.

AMBASSADOR POWER:  Thanks so much, Ben.  I'll just say a few quick words on the significance of this particular General Assembly, building on what Ben has said, and then I'll go to the refugee-related events at the U.N.

So as Ben noted, this will be the last U.N. General Assembly for President Obama, who came here for the first time in 2009 when the United States was more isolated on the world stage, and he pledged a new era of engagement, recognizing that when threats are transnational and across borders, it's really important that we be able to build coalitions and draw on not only on national capabilities, but on multilateral capabilities.  While we paid off our U.N. dues that had accrued in previous years and renewed our commitment to the U.N. by paying our bills in full, we renewed our commitment to multilateralism and even chose to work within underperforming multilateral institutions like the Human Rights Council, rather than criticize them from the outside.  And as Ben noted and has been instrumentally involved in, we made good on the President's pledge to engage with those with whom we disagree, opening up new, profound opportunities for diplomatic progress.

I think it's hard to overstate the transformative effect that this approach has had, and I'm the fortunate beneficiary here, as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, in getting to experience again the sea change and the desire of other countries to work with us and, actually more than they did in the past I think, to step up and be part of international coalitions to try to address these really challenging 21st century threats. …

I think just looking back, again, at some of the high points over the last eight years, what was a great low point for the international system — mainly the initial response to the devastating Ebola crisis in West Africa — I think became an example of the United States leading.  President Obama was the first world leader to deploy troops and public health professionals into the eye of the storm at the height of the epidemic, and then we leveraged that investment and that commitment to rally contributions from other countries.  And now people hardly talk about Ebola, even though at the time the President made those decisions, the estimates were that a million people would be affected within a matter of months.

We have worked tirelessly to bolster a very distinct U.N. capability, and that is peacekeeping.  There are peacekeeping missions all around the world in some of the most dangerous places, including places like Mali, where there's a nexus with terrorism and extremism.  President Obama, in the first summit of its kind, convened world leaders last year, as Ben been noted, mobilizing pledges for more than 40,000 troops and police, along with sophisticated enabling capabilities.

One of the things that has plagued peacekeeping performance is that the U.N. has had to rely on what it has rather than what it needs.  And so part of the President’s insight is to try to get more countries to step up, more advanced militaries to be part of it.  Eighteen military units have already deployed, or are in the process of doing so out of that summit, and more than 90 percent of countries that made pledges have taken significant steps to delivering them, which is a much higher rate than a lot of pledging conferences have here at the U.N.

… Okay, that brings me, I think, to one of the centerpieces of the President’s trip this year, which is the Leaders Summit on Refugees that he will be hosting along with a number of other leaders.  I don’t have to tell this audience about the gravity of the displacement crisis that we are all living right.  More than 21 million people have fled their homes and crossed international borders.  There’s 65 million people displaced overall, the largest number since World War II.  From Syria alone, nearly 5 million refugees have crossed the Syrian border trying to seek safety from barrel bombs and chemical weapons attacks and terrorist attacks.  And all of these individuals, every one of these numbers, is a face and a person with a family.  They are facing very uncertain futures and they’re looking to the rest of the world and to the U.N., of course, for help.

President Obama is going to convene a summit along with the leaders of Jordan, Mexico, Sweden, Germany, Canada, and Ethiopia, as well as the Secretary General, on September 20th.  And this summit we have been driving toward for many, many months, securing from those countries that participate new and significant commitments in several areas.  …

By Martin Luther Oketch

Kampala — The president of Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Uganda (ICPAU) has asked the public to seek advice from financial experts before taking bank loans.

Financial illiteracy has seen people taking loans from financial institutions without proper scrutiny of the terms, worsening high interest rates and loans defaults.

Addressing journalists last week in Kampala during the release of ICPAU August 2016 examination results for the Certified Public Accountants, Mr Protazio Begumisa said the advice will help the public understand the loan terms and make the right decision.

"How can you borrow at 24 per cent and the return on your business is 15 per cent. People need to seek professional advice from the accountants before borrowing because it's only the accountants who understand the value of money well," Mr Begumisa said.

Speaking on the examination results, Mr Begumisa said there were 3,452 candidates who sat for the August compared to 5,132 in June.

"The average pass rate was 39.2 per cent compared to 42.7 per cent in June 2016. There are 122 candidates who completed the course compared to 225 in June 2016, the number of female and male finalists was surprisingly equal that is 61 (50 per cent). Hopefully, we have achieved gender parity," he said.

Mr Begumisa said so far, a cumulative total of 2,629 students have completed the Certified Public Accountants (CPA) course.

Commenting on the examination results, Mr Uthman Mayanja, the chairman of the Public Accountants Examinations Board (PAEB), said the International Education Standard (IES) 5: Practical experience requires a professional accountancy organisation to ensure that aspiring professional accountants complete practical training before one is confirmed as a professional account.

"This is reinforced by The Accountants Regulations 2016.

The practical training has to be supervised by a member of the institute or at an approved organisation. The programme has already been rolled out," he said.

The ICPAU is the National Professional Accountancy body, established by the Accountants Act.

Mr Derick Nkajja, the chief executive officer of ICPAU, said ICPAU maintains the standards of accountancy; prescribes and regulates the conduct of accountants and practicing accountants in Uganda.

Washington — The International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced on Thursday that the Mozambican government is willing to work with the IMF on the terms of reference for an international, independent audit of the companies funded by undisclosed government-guaranteed loans in 2013-14.

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi met with IMF managing director Christine Lagarde on Thursday in Washington, as part of his four day working visit to the United States. During the meeting, Lagarde once again called for an independent audit of the hidden loans – and Nyusi appeared to agree with her.

According to a statement issued by Gerry Rice, the IMF's Director of Communications, Lagarde “welcomed the initial steps being taken on the agreed reforms and policies”, but also “stressed the need for further policy action aimed at stabilizing the economy and for more decisive efforts to improve transparency, in particular an international and independent audit of the companies that were funded under the loans disclosed in April 2016”.

Rice added that Lagarde “welcomed that the President indicated the Government of Mozambique's willingness to work with the IMF on the terms-of-reference for this process – to be initiated by the office of the Attorney General – and to implement it”.

To work on those terms of reference, an IMF staff team will visit Maputo next week, Rice announced.

This is in line with remarks made by Nyusi last Saturday at a press conference that concluded his visit to the southern province of Gaza, where he declared that the government is not opposed to an independent, international forensic audit of the loans.

Nyusi told the reporters “at no time has any member of the government said that a forensic audit was not going to be undertaken”.

“What we have been saying is that the cases are already under way at the level of the Attorney-General's Office and of the Assembly of the Republic (the Mozambican parliament)”, he added. “So the authorities are working”.

Prosecutors have already announced that there were illegalities involved in the loans. Although they were not specific, they presumably referred to the obvious violations of the limits on government guarantees for loans set in the 2013 and 2014 budget laws.

The controversy arises over three government guaranteed loans to quasi-public companies in 2013 and 2014, the closing years of the government of Nyusi's predecessor, Armando Guebuza. Between them these loans amounted to over two billion US dollars, and added 20 per cent to the Mozambican foreign debt.

One of the loans was public – this was the 850 million dollars of bonds launched on the European bond market by the Mozambique Tuna Company (EMATUM). The main banks handling the bond issue were Credit Suisse and VTB of Russia.

But the same two banks lent large, but undisclosed sums to the companies Proindicus (622 million dollars) and Mozambique Assets Management (MAM – 535 million dollars). Proindicus was set up to provide security to offshore oil and gas operations and to other shipping in the Mozambique Channel, while MAM is to sell naval maintenance and repair services.

It is these latter two loans and their government guarantees that angered the IMF. For the loans were not disclosed, either to the Mozambican public, or to Mozambique's foreign partners. When the loans became public knowledge in April, the IMF suspended its programme with Mozambique, including the second instalment of a 283 million dollar loan from the Standby Credit Facility (SCF). Other partners followed the IMF's lead – notably all 14 donors and funding agencies that provided direct support for the Mozambican state budget suspended all further disbursements.

The IMF suspected corruption was involved in the loans. In an interview with the BBC in May Lagarde said “When we see a country and a programme with the IMF where international community money is committed, that is not respecting its financial disclosure engagement, which is clearly concealing corruption, we suspend the programme. We did that just recently with Mozambique.'

The main demand raised by the IMF, and echoed by Mozambique's other western partners, such as the United States and Britain, has been for an international, independent, forensic audit which would track down exactly what happened with all the money involved.

The IMF statement on the Nyusi-Lagarde meeting indicates that such an audit will indeed happen, at least of the Proindicus and MAM loans.

ANALYSISBy Jonathan Adengo and Eronie Kamukama

James Obuku imports goods from China for retail purposes. At the height of the depreciation of the Shilling, Obuku took out a loan at an interest rate of 28 per cent which kept on fluctuating because it was not a fixed rate loan. As such, he paid through the nose.

If Obuku attempts to borrow again today, he says he will be given credit at an interest rate of 25 per cent which is still high. With the current (Central bank rate) CBR at 14 per cent, this implies that the commercial banks will be getting a profit of 11 per cent. According to Bank of Uganda (BoU) statistics, the interest rates charged by commercial banks have averaged at 21.3 per cent since the start of the millennium and about 21.7 per cent since July 2011.

Some experts have blamed this on BoU, saying tightening the CBR – the regulators tool for macroeconomic management – amounts to further increases in the cost of credit. But its easing is not followed by a corresponding reduction in lending rates.

Kenya recently signed into law a legislation that imposes limits on bank lending and deposit rates, challenging the regulator's conduct of monetary policy in a free market environment.

Back here, Ugandan financial sector players think capping interest rates is counterproductive while the civil society and pockets of the business community are pushing for Uganda to go the Kenya way.

Before the 1990s, Uganda's economy, just like many other economies in the region, was controlled. Almost all economic indicators including prices, interest rates, exchange rates were controlled by government.

Dr Ezra Suruma, the former finance minister and Chancellor Makerere University, in an interview with Prosper magazine says back in the 70s and 80s, the interest rates were set by the Minister of Finance during the budget speech reading. This rate would then be used throughout the year until the next budget reading.

However, he says the controlled regime did not deliver much. "It is not right to say that controlled interest rates worked in the 70s and 80s because the economy that we inherited in 80s was completely broken down. There was no economy. … We had controlled rates announced by the government but we did not have an economy at that time," Dr Suruma notes.

He says everybody wanted to borrow at that time because of very high inflation. "Whatever you borrowed, you would pay back cheaper money later and could always multiply your money very quickly through trading and the opportunities for speculation."

"It would not be correct to say it worked because hardly anybody was investing. The activity going on then was trade. It will be very hard to point out any hard investment at that times based on borrowing," he says.

Dr Suruma adds: "We looked at that situation and decided that it would be better to liberalise and when we did, the rates went high because inflation was still high."

In 1993 when Dr Suruma joined the Uganda Commercial Bank (now Stanbic Bank), some loans were being given out on an interest rate of 53 per cent. This was exorbitant so the then government worked hard to bring them down to a more reasonable level mainly by bringing down inflation.

"But at some point, they seem to have become stuck; we thought that the difference between the rate of inflation and lending rate would be a few interest rate points. So if inflation was 5 per cent, one would expect the highest rate to be 10 per cent which would double the inflation rate. Normally, it should be like 8 per cent. But that never happened," he explains.

Banking sector not competitive

Dr Suruma says one of the reasons for the high interest rates was that the banking sector was not competitive. "Initially, we were not allowing new banks to come into the sector because it had become unstable. One of the reasons given for the rates being high was that the competition was not as high," he says, adding: "When there is limited competition, you may even have what they call a cartel in which major banks decide what the rates should be.

For instance in the 90's, Uganda had one large bank -Uganda Commercial Bank, which held about 47 per cent of the total deposits for the whole country. This made it a huge player in setting the market trend.

One of the reasons the World Bank pushed for the privatisation of the bank was to reduce its dominance in the financial sector.

Mr Lawrence Bategeka, a senior research fellow, says one of the assumptions of a free market is that there must be many players. However, in Uganda, "There are only 25 banks which have developed Cartel like behaviour," he says.

He says one of the things they want to look at is the extent of genuine competition in that sector. Is there really competition? Are there a few big banks coming together and determining what the rate should be rather than competition determining the basis? The ideal is what we call 'perfect' competition where you have a large number of lenders and borrowers such that the market is determined by forces of supply and demand.

Mr Fred Muhumuza, an economist and researcher, says in between control and free market is regulation. "Every time you liberalise and you don't strengthen regulation, the markets go mad because markets are self-interest driving and interests are so many in the market. Even in the banking industry, there are those that want to eat up the small ones," he says.

Mr Muhumuza says what we miss out in Uganda is the strong regulatory frame work and competition authority which should check the behaviours of the market. He says capping interest rates alone is not enough to solve the interest rate problem.

Mr George Lipimile, the chief executive officer of the COMESA Competition Commission (CCC), says a competition law is there to protect the process of competition.

"It is meant to punish large companies on account of their size and commercial success. The idea behind these laws is that in every market, there should be vigorous competition forcing firms to continually strive to improve their goods and services and to offer them on favourable terms.

However, according to Bank of Uganda experts, competition in the Ugandan banking industry has increased in the last 10 years with now 25 commercial banks, five microfinance deposit taking institutions and four credit institutions operating in the country. The market share of the three largest banks has since reduced, much of this competition takes place through expansion of branch networks – the number of bank branches has increased from 141 in 2006 to 691 today.

"By efforts to mobilise deposits by offering attractive time deposit rates, both of which raise the costs of doing business for the banks and increase rapidly if banks extend their branch networks outside of the main cities; costs which must be passed onto borrowers in form of high lending rates," Dr Thomas Bwire, an economist at Bank of Uganda (BoU) says.

Interest rate spread

Interest rate spread — the difference between the lending rate banks charge borrowers and the deposit rate offered to savers, is one way of finding out how efficient banks are. But to understand why lending rates are so high, one ought to look at the causes of high interest rate spreads.

"The largest single contributor to interest rate spreads in Uganda is bank overhead costs, which are high because of the structural features of the economy and the banking system," Dr Bwire shares.

Mr Ramathan Ggoobi, an economics lecturer from Makerere University Business School, says the central bank should exercise its regulatory powers to check the high overhead costs incurred by the commercial banks that in turn transfer the burden to the borrower through increased interest rates. He also says banks offer a saving rate of three per cent yet our inflation is almost 5 per cent, a disincentive to savers.

"When you ask the central bank to regulate, they say its policy reversal. It is good that we should liberalise but let us not deregulate like this," Mr Ggoobi says.

Mr Louis Kasekende, BoU's deputy governor also down played the possibility of BoU proposing any legislation to cap lending rates like Kenya did last week. In the 1960s, there were fixed interest rates by the central banks for different loans and saving products.

"Our assessment then is that it did not serve us well. If you look at the financial system of the 1980s, it actually contracted. We moved away from fixed interest rates to market-determined interest rates and our experience with these rates has been very good since 1993," he said. "Any move away from market-determined interest rates would be a policy reversal and you do not just give away something that has been serving you well in terms of the financial sector," Mr Kasekende said.

Comparison with the region

Kenya, which is relatively advanced economy in East Africa, has a CBR currently at 10.5 per cent, the maximum interest rate stands at 14.5 per cent.

Other free markets globally have strong regulations to restrain banks as such guarding against increase in interest rates. Free markets, from the United States to Britain to China, sometimes need the steady restraining hand of regulation on the hand brake.

Pretoria — The annual Consumer Price Index (CPI) eased to 5.9% in August 2016, Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) announced on Wednesday.

"Headline inflation decreased to 5.9% for August 2016. That is 0.1% down on the 6% recorded in July," said Joe de Beer Deputy Director General at Stats SA.

Contributors to the annual change of 5.9% in CPI were food and non-alcoholic beverages at 1.7%, housing and utilities at 1.4% and miscellaneous goods and services at 1.1%, among others.

Food and non-alcoholic beverages contributed to the monthly change of 0.1% as did transport recording a -0.3%.

"When looking at food month-on-month we saw that vegetables and meat declined in terms of their prices but there were increases in oils and fats, bread and cereals as well as sugar, sweets and desserts," noted de Beer.

The decrease in headline inflation was in line with market expectation including that of Nedbank economists.

"We expect inflation to increase to marginally above 6% in the next few months as earlier rand weakness works itself through the numbers. Consumer inflation is expected to end the year at 6% and average 6.2% in 2016 as a whole," said Nedbank economists.

Going into 2017, the bank expects consumer prices to soften going into 2017 as food prices cool somewhat on the back of a good winter crop season and the possibility of a La Nina weather pattern which is forecast to bring normal rainfall levels in 2017.

"The biggest threat to the inflation outlook is still the currency and a weak rand will limit the decrease in prices in 2017," noted the economists.

Nedbank said the softer inflation profile and the recent strengthening of the rand gives the Reserve Bank room to leave rates temporarily unchanged.

"The big concern for the central bank still remains the rand. We believe that the current strength in the currency is temporary and that the rand will weaken as the year progresses. We believe that the Reserve Bank will take a wait and see approach tomorrow when they announce their rate decision, but we are not completely ruling out a 25 basis point rate hike early in the new year," said the economists.

The central bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will announce its decision with regards to the repo rate tomorrow afternoon.

CPI basket and weight

Meanwhile, Stats SA announced on Wednesday that it will make changes to the CPI basket of goods and services and the weights attached to these. This would take effect from the January 2017 release of CPI.

It is international practice that reweighing takes place at least every five years to ensure relevance to the changing consumption trends.

South Africa's last reweighing exercise was in January 2013.

The basket of products whose prices in which inflation figures are calculated is based on the spending of South African households over a particular year with the primary source of this data being Living Conditions Survey (LCS).

By Sifa Lubasi

Dodoma — Aircrafts landing daily at Dodoma Airport have tripled to nine from the normal three following completion of expansion works on the runway, Airport Manager Mr Julius Mlungwa has said.

He said the completion of the works early this month has allowed more flights to land at the semi-arid region and the country's designated capital, lowering airfare to passengers. "The airport expansion works are complete by 100 percent.

We are now finalising putting mark-points," he said. Mr Mlungwa said, for long, air travelers, including tour agents, businesspeople, government officers, leaders, international organisation representatives and ordinary people, had been complaining about escalating airfares to and from Dodoma.

"We had only two flights, Auric Air and Flight Link. They were both 13-seaters and fare stood at 495,000/- for single ticket from Dar es Salaam to Dodoma.

It was not easy for an ordinary person to use air transport," he said. Tanzania Airport Authority (TAA) Engineer Mbila Mdemu who was in charge of the expansion project said the last renovation works at Dodoma Airport was done in 1976.

He said there was a feasibility study conducted in 2005 to expand the runway but the expansion were not undertaken due to limited financial resources. "President John Magufuli ordered expansion of the runway with other related services before August.

We have managed to complete all the requirement," he told reporters here yesterday. Dodoma Assistant Apron, Mr Emmanuel Kisumo admitted that despite additional numbers, now the airport is accommodating up to 90-seaters aircrafts.

The new expansion work involved 2.5 kilometre runway and a 500m lighting area for airplane safety during takeoff and landing.

By Mwiti Marete

The Meru Government is set to brand its own coffee to increase earnings from the cash crop.

Mr Ntoitha M'Mithiaru, the cooperative, trade and tourism executive said the county is one of the best producers of quality coffee in the world and developing a brand would earn farmers more income.

"Farmers came together in 2014 and formed Meru County Coffee Millers Union. Through the union they have been able to get better prices from sales. The lowest (amount) farmers have been paid is Sh60 per kilo and highest is Sh130," he said.

He said the payment to the farmers depends on the international markets but will change with value addition.

He said cartels were swindling farmers but they have now been sensitised through seminars organised by the county government.

Challenges that farmers faced, including access to fertilizer and seedlings, have also been addressed.

"We have made it easier for farmers to get fertilizer by granting them loans as well as carrying out research on different types of soils in the county to identify the best seedlings for different areas," he said.

By Brian Ngugi

President Uhuru Kenyatta has maintained silence on when he will appoint a new Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) board, nearly one-and-a-half years since terms of five members expired.

Mid-April, the Treasury said it had finalised picking nominees and expected them to be appointed "soon".

The President appointed lawyer Mohamed Nyaoga in June last year to chair the new and more powerful board, but is yet to pick five members, with no explanation on the delay. Changes introduced in 2012 created a two-tier board to check the governor's influence on the economy.

New rate regime

Yesterday, State officials were mum on the process that is crucial as the board oversees performance of the bank's executive as it implements the new rate capping regime.

Spokesperson for the Presidency Manoah Esipisu did not pick our calls nor return messages sent to his phone. Neither did National Treasury Secretary Henry Rotich and the deputy State House chief of staff and head of Public Service Nzioka Waita.

Following the long delay, focus has turned to the implication of the lack of the crucial policy making board, especially at a time Kenya's financial sector is in the grip of massive changes.

"I am sure the Central Bank itself would like to lift this shadow — It is self-evidently not optimal," said Rich Management CEO Aly Khan Satchu.Mr Rotich had said in April that the names would be forwarded to the President for appointment, ahead of approval by Parliament.

"We have finalised on the names on the board members. They will be appointed by the President and then approved by Parliament. We expect this to happen very soon," said Mr Rotich.

The lack of a board of directors at the CBK initially became a major point of focus, following a crisis of confidence in the country after the fall of Chase, Imperial and Dubai banks and suspension of six managers at the National Bank of Kenya.

Such a board would be expected to have a committee specialising in matters relating to ensuring the stability of the financial sector as a whole.The team is supposed to set CBK's policies, review performance of the governor and provide oversight over the regulator's strategy and financial management.

Discuss performance

Under the CBK Act, the board is supposed to meet not less than once every two months to discuss the regulator's performance, check decisions made by management and consider capital investments.

The hole in the board has been seen to stall a fully constituted panel to execute its role. Under the Central Bank of Kenya Act (Cap. 491), the responsibility of determining the policy of the bank, other than the formulation of monetary policy, is given to the board of directors.

The CS had, however, said earlier that the absence of a board did not mean that the financial sector was under threat since the governor was charged with ensuring risks are minimised.

The financial problems currently besieging state-owned Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) can be as easy as privatising it, declares Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Dr Akolang Tombale. "Privatise BMC and let it compete," said Dr Tombale when appearing before the Parliamentary statutory body. Tombale said part of the problems leading to the company's poor performance is that they are operating on social welfare basis, resulting with loss making operations in Francistown and Maun abattoirs.

Francistown plant though the newest plant of the three has not performed well, failing to even reach least 85% of its capacity utilisation since its commissioning. It has long been de-listed from the European Union market and was only re-listed in August 2016. Though re-listed again Francistown, according to the BMC report, has lost Zone 4 (a) which is Boteti area. Though Lobatse plant is doing well it is very old and possibly dilapidated and requires modernisation and alignment to the greater objectives of BMC strategic plan, said Tombale. "As part of restructuring and modernising BMC we will need P2 billion and have not asked government for assistance for now," said Tombale after being questioned if they have submitted their proposal to government.

According to its 2014 Audited Financial Report, BMC has a total deficit for the year of P9 million (2013; a surplus of P26 million and P28 million respectively). The total liabilities of the group and commission exceed the total assets by P109 and P248 million respectively. Chairperson of the Parliamentary statutory Body, Samson Moyo Guma labelled BMC as bankrupt.

Uíge — The chairman of Confederation of Farmer Associations and Agricultural Cooperatives of Angola (UNACA), Albano da Silva Lussati, is working from Monday in the northern Uíge province to assess the functioning of the sector in the region.

After his arrival in Uige Province, Albano da Silva Lussati met with members of the local Association and the acting provincial governor, Afonso Luviluko.

Speaking to the press, UNACA chairperson said that the visit aims to inform on the strategic development plan of the associations with the local government.

He noted that the three-day visit to Uíge will also strengthen the survey, training of staff of UNACA and re-launch of associations and cooperatives.

The visiting agenda includes meetings with members, visit to the associations and cooperatives based in Puri Municipality.