We spoke to Joseph Kitamirike about his new stock exchange, ALTX East Africa, which started trading recently. He told us about setting up the exchange, his tenure at Uganda Securities Exchange, and what he hopes to achieve with ALTX.
Most of the best archives and research facilities are located in the global north. There, research budgets are more than generous. Comparatively, Africa’s research budgets are chronically low; research and development makes up a tiny portion of countries’ GDPs.
The mobile money sector is dominated by two telecoms, MTN Uganda and Airtel, who together account for 99% of mobile money agent market presence, according to a new report. The market leader is MTN with 57%, followed by Airtel with 42%.
A survey of commercial banks shows that a good number of them have cut their prime lending rate, a sign the Bank of Uganda’s three consecutive rate cuts are having an effect.
Government used public sector banks, the Uganda Commercial Bank and the Cooperative Bank to provide loans to farmers at subsidized interest rates – which were often highly negative in real terms. Some of these lending schemes were financed from the Central bank.
Uganda’s flagship university, Makerere, has fallen five places in the latest ranking of the world’s top universities released today. Makerere is 762 in the 2016 rankings compiled by higher education research firm QS. It was 753 last year.
“ALTX has successfully listed 25 debt securities and has so far activated three maturing February 2019, November 2018 and May 2021,” ALTX Chief Executive Officer Joseph Kitamirike said in a statement.
The analysis looked at the six telecom companies that offer internet services in Uganda. We arranged the plans according to their validity periods and cost. The most common validity periods are 24 hours, one week, one month, and three months.
Umeme’s revenue grew 20.3% to Shs658.7 billion ($195.5m) in the first half of 2016 on higher power sales but net profit fell from Shs67.6bn to Shs54.5bn ($16.2m) on increased financing costs and a normalised tax rate, half-year results released today show.
Vodafone is in the process of phasing out unlimited plans, according to the company’s spokesperson. But Vodafone customers who had signed up by 25 August will continue to use unlimited plans until further notice.