Historic RTS,S/AS01 recommendation can reinvigorate the fight against malaria | THE INDEPENDENT | The World Health Organisation (WHO) is recommending widespread use of the RTS,S/AS01 (RTS,S) malaria vaccine among children in sub-Saharan Africa and in other regions with moderate to high P. falciparum malaria transmission. The P. falciparum is the …

Google’s plans to invest $1bn in Africa’s tech infrastructure and talent over the next five years has sparked a debate over big tech’s tax obligations | SOSHANA KEDEM | Google announced $1bn of investments in Africa’s digital transformation in its first ever Google for Africa event on Oct.06. Over the …

Poor market information has made the ability to monitor market prices in close to real time difficult | GRACE NSOMBA AND SIMON ROBERTS | Southern and Eastern Africa face the twin challenges of growing agricultural production to meet food demand while adapting to extreme weather. And climate change makes addressing …

The telecom firm plans to raise US$1.2bn in IPO Kampala, Uganda | ISAAC KHISA | Uganda’s biggest telecom, MTN Uganda, is set to reveal its new growth plans and opportunities on Oct. 11 when it publishes its indicative price range ahead of the expected US$1.2billion initial public offering (IPO). MTN …

But businesses remain optimistic about the future Kampala, Uganda | JULIUS BUSINGE | Business sentiments in Uganda’s private sector remained positive but slow in September on account of new orders and higher output, according to the monthly Stanbic Bank Purchasing Managers Index (PMI). The headline PMI registered 52.5 in September …

The few clues to what caused it point to a problem from within | DAVID TUFFLEY | Suddenly and inexplicably, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger and Oculus services were gone. And it was no local disturbance. In a blog post, Downdetector.com, a major monitoring service for online outages, called it the …

‘It’s time to pursue them,’ says offshore tax expert Prof. Ronen Palan, a specialist in offshore tax havens and senior advisor to the Tax Justice Network Many of the world’s richest and most powerful people are in the spotlight once more for using secretive tax havens and corporate structures to …

Abdulrazak Gurnah is the first Black African writer to receive the Nobel prize in literature since Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka in 1986. | THE INDEPENDENT | The 2021 Nobel prize in Literature has been awarded to Zanzibar-born novelist, Abdulrazak Gurnah. He is the first writer from the semi-autonomous island in …

Expert reveals how it shaped 2021 election Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | There is a growing trend of domestic political actors deploying targeted disinformation schemes in several African countries; Uganda inclusive, according to Tessa Knight, a South Africa-based researcher with the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab). Knight …

Could vitamin A help? Researchers at the University of East Anglia and James Paget University Hospital are launching a new project to see whether Vitamin A could help people regain their sense of smell after viral infections including COVID-19. Smell loss is a common symptom of COVID-19, but even before …