Kenya could quadruple central bank capital
The Central Bank of Kenya could receive an injection of $170 million from the government if a new bill designed to hand the central bank greater independence is adopted by the national assembly.
The central bank has, at present, five billion shillings ($57 million) in authorised capital. Under the proposed Central Bank of Kenya Act 2014, this would quadruple to 20 billion shillings.
Recapitalisation can be a sensitive issue. Both the Bank of Uganda and the Bank of Mauritius were made to wait for capital injections they were entitled to receive from their respective governments.
Should the Central Bank of Kenya's capital levels fall below the 20 billion shillings, the government would be obliged to transfer the necessary "currency or negotiable debt instruments" within a period of "no more than 30 calendar days".
Transforming Africa's Agriculture for Shared Prosperity
Participants at the 10th Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) partnership meeting has recognised CAADP as the expression of reclaimed ownership of agricultural policy by African States and citizens of the continent.
CAADP is the African Union and NEPAD continent-wide structurewithin which African countries plan to accelerate economic growth, eliminate hunger, reduce poverty and enhance food and nutrition security, through agriculture-led development. To date, fifty out of fifty-four countries in Africa are using the CAADP structure in agricultural planning.
The 10th CAADPP Partnership Platform, which started on Tuesday 18 March 2014 in Durban, South Africa, has evolved to become a forum for those in the partnership to report on and discuss progress in a number of areas including collective financing and other public and private funding instruments.
TFAA 2012 nominee chairs Agriculture committee at the Euro-African Youth Parliament in Germany
The Euro Youth African Parliament (EYPA) will be holding in Berlin, Germany between March 27 – April 4, 2014. This event will be the first conference of its kind with over 60 alumni of the European Youth Parliament (EYP) will come together in Berlin and meet 60 participants from Africa.
One of the delegates expected to be at the conference is Sola Amusan, a 2012 TFAA nominee in the Agriculture category of Entrepreneur of the Year. Amusan will be chairing the agriculture, food security and rural affairs committee with co-chair, Megan Smith representing Ireland.
The EYPA is a project mutually organised by the German Schwarzkopf Foundation based in Berlin together with the Youth Bridge Foundation from Accra, Ghana.
India to unlock Africa's agribusiness potential
India has begun moves to help Africa set up agri-business centres, seed incubators, modern laboratories and joint projects as part of an enhanced partnership in agriculture to achieve food and nutrition security, promote entrepreneurship and create a trillion-dollar food market by 2030.
Proposals for such sectoral cooperation will be bounced this week at the Asia-Africa Agribusiness Forum meeting in which agriculture ministers of some 15 African countries will take part. The details, official sources said, could be worked out and decisions taken at the Africa-India Summit this year in Delhi.
Africa is well-endowed with resources but it lacks much of the expertise to unlock their commercial potential by restructuring its agriculture industry to a more profitable form of agribusiness.
