'The greatest lesson is that we should cultivate a mind of being active contributors to the world's economy and not just sit back and lament about Africa being a poor continent,' said Geoffrey Nyasimi, a SIFE Kenya student from Maseno University.  

His remarks came soon after Lord Michael Hastings' speech on corporate citizenship during a business breakfast meeting that was hosted by Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE Kenya), in Nairobi. Lord Michael Hastings of Scarisbrick is the former Commissioner of Racial Equality in United Kingdom, and currently the global head of Corporate Citizenship and Diversity, KPMG International. He spoke during the meeting organized by SIFE Kenya in partnership with KPMG that brought together national SIFE competition judges and the winning SIFE team.  

Maseno University SIFE team won this year's annual SIFE competition out of 14 Kenyan universities. The team will be representing SIFE Kenya in Berlin Germany for the SIFE World cup competition in October. The team boasts of six projects, including a chicken rearing project that was set up in to upgrade the lives of the local community. 

Lord Hastings urged the business community to invest in the future through young people. 'It is important for the business community and Africa at large to invest in productivity and put in mind philanthropic capitalism that will help mobilize resources in building the society for the future,' he said. 

He also emphasized on the issue of accountability as concerns creating wealth and profits. It is not bad for people to make profits as long as accountability and ethical concerns becomes core to operational values.  

The new SIFE Country Board Chair, Andy Watt (MD Syngenta East Africa Ltd) welcomed members of the business community in Kenya to join in assisting SIFE nurture the next generation of business leaders. 

Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE), Kenya was launched in 2003 following an M.O.U signed between SIFE International and Inter Region Economic Network (IREN Kenya). The Kenyan program has expanded from 5 universities in 2003 to the present 14. SIFE, founded in the United States in 1975, is the world's largest business and entrepreneurship organization that targets university students on over 1500 campuses in 47 countries.  

Strong Local Currency Unwelcome in South Africa

Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni took the unusual step of intervening personally to halt a sustained rand rally, warning its strength might be "unwelcome" for SA's shrinking economy according to Business Day. A recent survey showed that factory output fell less steeply in SA last month, sparking hope that a severe and prolonged contraction in the economy's second-biggest sector might be easing. A strong rand could derail a recovery in local factory exports, when the global economy eventually starts to recover. Citigroup economist Jean-Francois Mercier said: "It may be the speed of the rand's move rather than the level which has concerned the Bank. If you want exports to help growth in your economy, this kind of rand strength is not sustainable in the longer term."

EAC Wants Rwanda, Burundi to Adopt Common Law SystemNew Times has reported that Rwanda and Burundi will have to commute their judicial system to common law from civil law. The move will help the two countries to conform to the EAC ahead of the on-going negotiations to form a political federation among the five member-states that make up the regional bloc. Apart from Rwanda and Burundi, the other three countries; Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda use a common law system. In a telephone interview, the EAC Deputy Secretary General in charge of political federation, Beatrice Kiraso, said that all public and private institutions will have to unify their systems.

Nigerian Govt Revokes Sale of Nitel

The Federal Government yesterday announced the revocation of the sale of Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (Nitel) and its mobile subsidiary, M-Tel, to Transnational Corporation (Transcorp) Plc, citing "breach" of contractual terms according to THIS DAY. It has also put a stop to further sale of Nitel/M-Tel's assets and made provision for adequate security to all Nitel/M-Tel facilities to prevent any further asset-stripping until a new investor is found. But Transcorp has kicked against the revocation, hinting at legal tussles that may follow the order. The revocation came at the meeting of the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) presided over by Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. Briefing State House Correspondents at the end of the meeting, the Minister of State Information and Communications, Alhaji Ikra Bilbis, said the government decision was based on the failure of Transcorp to meet the conditions under the sale of the telecommunications companies.

Explosion Kills Soldiers and Civilians in Somalia

More than 5 government soldiers have been killed and 5 others including civilians have been injured after land mine explosion targeted to Somali government soldiers' vehicle traveling near Km4 in the Somali capital Mogadishu, according to Shabelle radio. Residents said that the explosion was a huge landmine explosion that occurred between Taleh and Km4 intersections and targeted to a vehicle belonged by the government soldiers killing more than five of the government soldiers and wounded five others including civilian who was around where land mine explosion occurred.