Owing to its strategic position at the heart of a wider Nile Basin-East Africa hydrocarbons-rich area, South Sudan is emerging as the hub for petroleum industry services and exploration in the region. As a result, investors have been pitching tent at the East African nation in droves, a move that is having ripple effects across the region.

In East Africa’s education matters, Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) ha partnered with Old Mutual in developing a financial literacy online orientation course for junior and senior secondary teachers.

The course is designed to equip teachers with the capacity to effectively implement the financial literacy concepts that are to be mainstreamed into the curriculum during the learning process.

At the same time, Global edtech company Snapplify has launched its Teacha! brand in East Africa, making thousands of teaching resources immediately available to teachers. Using the Teacha! resource marketplace, teachers can buy and sell their teaching resources online.

This comes as research from Stockapps shows that the online education industry is set to make $148.57 billion in 2022. Furthermore, the industry is headed in the right direction and is expected to grow by 10.8% year on year in 2022.

In the startups space, AfricArena, the African series of tech events, announced a partnership with FMO Ventures Program, the Rise Open Innovation Challenge, which focuses on accelerating the growth of startups looking to improve the state of Africa and create more sustainable models for positive impact. Among the first countries to benefit include Tanzania, Ghana and Morocco.

This happened as The Directorate of Resource Surveys & Remote Sensing (DRSRS) and the Kenyan Smart Agri-Tech Company Agrvision signed an MoU to develop a nationwide unified platform for crop monitoring and yield forecasting powered by Satellite imagery and artificial intelligence.

And Kenyan fintech Power Financial Wellness has signed a partnership agreement with private healthcare solutions provider, Penda Health. The agreement is set to see both companies mutually benefit from their tech services. Power companies and customers will have access to unlimited 24/7 telemedical care provided by Penda Health’s clinicians at an extremely affordable cost. At the same time, Penda Health will join the Power platform to enable a range of affordable and appropriate financial services for their workforce.

Elsewhere in the banking and financial services sector, The African Development Bank has signed an agreement to invest in the Joint Reinsurance Company of Member States of Conférence Interafricaine des Marchés d’Assurances (CICA-Re) whose members include among others DR Congo.

The investment is expected to strengthen the underwriting capacity of CICA-Re and contribute to the financing of its development and expansion across Africa. It will also bolster the company’s contribution to the development of domestic capital markets through the retention of a substantial share of locally generated reinsurance premiums.

To improve access to financial services and increase financial inclusion in Uganda, Danida established aBi Finance more than 12 years ago. aBi Finance provides agricultural financing via credits and loan guarantees to financial institutions.

To take aBi Finance to the next level, IFU and the EU are investing USD 18 million. in share capital. The investment will increase the company's capacity and is expected to generate additional revenue of $ 4 million annually, 900 new jobs per year and increase the number of customers by 27,000.

The Board of National Bank of Kenya (NBK) announced the appointment of Peter Kioko as the Acting Managing Director. The position became vacant following the appointment of Paul Russo as the KCB Group Chief Executive Officer in May. NBK is a subsidiary of KCB Group.

Elsewhere, A delegation from the Digital Cooperation Organization recently concluded the organization’s inaugural visit to Rwanda by announcing the DCO Global Roundtable Series, an initiative that will bring together global digital economy leaders to develop an action plan for digital prosperity for all.

[East Africa Business Week] Bob Koigi: South Sudan remains a strategic player in the region’s petroleum industry

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