THE Kenyan parliament has approved a bill capping interest rates commercial banks can charge, which until this week were as high as 30%. Once signed into law by President Daniel arap Moi, the bill, tabled by opposition MP Joe Akech Donde, will cap interest rates at three points above that of the central bank’s 90-day […]

TWENTY-ONE embassies and the European Commission in Kenya have expressed concern over an increase in political violence in Kenya in recent weeks. In a statement released through the Canadian High Commission, the foreign envoys made reference to several incidents of violence at recent political rallies in various parts of the country. The disruptions came after […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Lobito | Thursday ANGOLA is to seek backers in Houston next week for its proposed $3.3bn oil refinery in the southern coastal town of Lobito, a senior state oil company official said. ”We have arranged a meeting with potential technical and financial partners for December 5 in Houston,” said Amadeu Correia de Azevedo, […]

SOUTH African investment bank Investec says it has boosted its stake in financial services business Fedsure to 19% as part of its bid to buy the company’s insurance unit. Investec said last week it had agreed with Fedsure to buy the smaller company’s unit in a deal worth $735m, which would create South Africa’s second-largest […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday SOUTH African media holding group MIH Holdings has reported wider headline losses per share in the first half of the year due to higher development costs in its Internet and technology businesses. The pay TV firm said headline losses per share rose to 74.81 cents in the six months to […]

SA Narcotics Bureau detectives confiscated about 4kg of cocaine worth R1,2m at Johannesburg International Airport, North Rand police said. The drugs were concealed in the luggage of a South African citizen arriving from Buenos Aires. The man was arrested and is expected to appear in court this week.

WORKERS building a third production unit at a multinational liquefied natural gas plant in southern Nigeria have gone on strike over a locally-imposed levy, the company said. A spokesman for the operating company Nigeria LNG, co-owned by Anglo-Dutch oil group Royal Dutch/Shell, Italy’s Agip, French group Totalfina Elf and the state-run Nigerian company NNPC, said […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Lusaka | Thursday ZAMBIA’S ruling MMD party has rejected a parliamentary committee report that sharply criticises the privatisation of the copper mining industry. The report on the privatisation of Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines (ZCCM), presented by the parliamentary committee on economic affairs, said certain ministers broke the law in the sale process and […]

CRIS CHINAKA, Harare | Thursday ZIMBABWE’S justice minister has lashed out at white and Asian judges, warning that their opposition to President Robert Mugabe’s seizure of white-owned land could plunge the country into war. Minister Patrick Chinamasa said in an address reported by state radio that the white and Asian judges could not serve Mugabe’s […]