NAIROBI (Reuters) &#8211; Kenya Airways plans to double its fleet over the next five years, its chairman said on Monday, as the loss-making carrier combats regional rivals like Ethiopian.



The Kenyan airline, which is 48.9% government-owned and 7.8% by Air France-KLM, restructured $2 billion of debt in 2017 and is opening new routes as it seeks to return to profit.



It had a fleet of 41 airplanes at the end of last year, comprising a mix of wide and narrow body Boeing planes, compared with Ethiopian which operates more than 100 planes.



Kenya Airways, which also operates Bombardier and Embraer planes on its short and medium haul flights, is restructuring its aircraft leasing agreements and its other debts to free up cash for investment in new planes, Chairman Michael Joseph told a shareholder meeting.



“We intend to double the size of the fleet over the next five years if we can find the right financial structure to do this,” Joseph said.



Efforts by the airline to boost its revenue by taking over the running of Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport were thwarted by a parliamentary committee last month.



The cabinet had backed a plan last year to hand over management of the profitable airport, the largest in the country, to Kenya Airways to revitalise its balance sheet and allow it to buy new planes and open new routes.



Kenya Airways wants to emulate rival carriers who operate airports, taking advantage of profitable services such as catering, fuel distribution, cargo and maintenance.



The parliament’s transport committee has instead proposed that the government considers other ways of helping the carrier, including exempting it from paying taxes.



Chief Executive Sebastian Mikosz, who was hired in 2017 to help turn around the airline, said last month he would resign at the end of this year for personal reasons, casting its recovery into doubt.



The chairman however said the airline’s management was intact despite Mikosz’s planned departure, adding he would leave behind a solid team but declining to say when a replacement for Mikosz will be chosen.



Editing by Duncan Miriri and Alexander Smith

How Kenya Airways plans to double its fleet over the next 5 years

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) &#8211; Ratings agency Moody’s said on Monday that it had lowered its forecast for South Africa’s 2019 economic growth to 1.0% from 1.3% after it said a first-quarter contraction had dented the government’s revenue and policy options.



Moody’s is the last of the big three international credit firms to rate South Africa at investment grade.



President Cyril Ramaphosa’s efforts to revive Africa’s most advanced economy were dealt a blow last week when data showed gross domestic product had contracted by a quarterly 3.2% in the first three months of 2019, the largest contraction in a decade.



Ramaphosa’s African National Congress (ANC) is also in the midst of a row over the central bank’s role, which has rattled financial markets.



“The quarterly decline, the largest in 10 years, is credit negative for the Government of South Africa’s (Baa3 stable) revenue and policy options,” Lucie Villa, Moody’s lead sovereign analyst for South Africa, wrote in a research report.



“The first-quarter contraction presages low growth in the year as a whole,” Villa added.



If Moody’s were to relegate South African debt to “junk” status, billions of dollars could leave the economy, analysts say.



Reporting by Alexander Winning; editing by John Stonestreet

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NAIROBI (Reuters) &#8211; Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has renewed Central Bank Governor Patrick Njoroge’s term, local station Citizen Television said on Thursday.



Njoroge was first appointed to his post in June 2015 for a four-year term, which is renewable once.



Njoroge is a U.S.-educated economist and worked as an adviser at the International Monetary Fund before becoming governor in 2015.



During his first term, the government introduced a cap on commercial lending rates in 2016 as well as moratorium on the issuance of new commercial bank licences in 2015.



His first term saw the government introduce of caps on commercial lending rates in 2016, the introduction of a moratorium on issuance of new commercial bank licences in 2015.



At the time, the temporary closure of Chase Bank Kenya, which followed the closure of Imperial Bank, another mid-sized lender, and Dubai Bank Kenya, a smaller lender, had dented confidence in the industry, which has also seen a jump in bad debts.



Reporting by George Obulutsa; Editing by Angus MacSwan

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KEY POINTS
<ul>
<li>Naspers, a South African consumer internet company, owns a 31% stake valued at roughly $126 billion in Chinese tech giant Tencent.</li>
<li>In an interview at the Money20/20 Europe conference on Monday, Naspers CEO Bob van Dijk said China’s tech scene has been a “bloodbath” in recent months.</li>
<li>Van Dijk blamed trade tensions between the U.S. and China but said he’s not worried about Tencent.</li>
</ul>
<div class="Author-authorNameAndSocial"><a class="Author-authorName" tabindex="" title="" role="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/elizabeth-schulze/" target="" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-type="" aria-label="">Elizabeth Schulze</a> 
<a class="Author-authorTwitter" tabindex="" title="" role="" href="https://twitter.com/eschulze9" target="" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-type="" aria-label="">@ESCHULZE9</a></div>
Chinese tech stocks have been in a ‘bloodbath’ but the future is bright: Naspers CEO 
Tencent’s biggest shareholder is bullish on Chinese tech stocks despite the trade war between the U.S. and China. 
<iframe loading="lazy" width="560" height="349" src="https://player.cnbc.com/p/gZWlPC/cnbc_global?playertype=synd&amp;byGuid=7000082606" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen="" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" oallowfullscreen="" msallowfullscreen=""></iframe> 
Naspers, a South African consumer internet company, owns a 31% stake in Chinese tech giant Tencent. In an interview at the Money20/20 Europe conference on Monday, Naspers CEO Bob van Dijk said tech stocks in China, including Tencent, have fallen victim to the trade war between the world’s two biggest economies.
But, he added, the fundamentals of China’s economy remain “very, very strong.”
“The China tech stock scene has been a bloodbath in the last few months,” he said. “I think it has everything to do with trade tensions and that affects everybody. It’s not good, it’s not good for anybody, but in the end if you take a 10-year view, which is what we typically do, the market is there, the innovation is there, so I think the long-term future is bright.”
The KraneShares CSI China Internet exchange-traded fund, which tracks Chinese tech stocks including Baidu, Tencent and Alibaba, has tumbled 14% in the past three months as the U.S and China have ratcheted up tariffs on each others’ goods. Technology has emerged as a heated battleground in the trade conflict as both countries seek to dominate new areas like 5G and artificial intelligence.
Shares of Tencent have fared better this year than in 2018 after Chinese regulators restarted approving video games, a key source of the company’s revenue. In addition to gaming and messaging, Tencent is also growing its payments and cloud services.
Naspers’ van Dijk said he expects tech companies will continue to be targeted in the trade war but added he was “not so worried about Tencent” thanks to its domestic business model.
Naspers made a $32 million investment in Tencent in 2001, betting on what was then a little-known company. That stake is now worth roughly $126 billion as of Tencent’s market close Monday.
“It’s been probably the best investment ever done by a company so we’re quite lucky to be associated with them, but if I look forward, the best is yet to come,” van Dijk said.

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By Victor Oladokun* As a 10-year-old kid newly arrived in Lagos, Nigeria from Liverpool, England, I recall having a conversation with myself. At the time, I instinctively understood that if I was to be able to function properly in the future, being able to proficiently speak my father&#8217;s language &#8211; Yoruba &#8211; was going to be inevitable. Trying hard to amend or rid myself of a half London and half Liverpool accent, I would listen intently to how the language was spoken around me and repeat what I heard, or what I thought I had heard, in my head. I was not always successful since what would come out of my mouth many times caused fits of laughter among friends. Yoruba is a tonal language. Some three-letter words pronounced wrongly or with the accent on the wrong syllable, can get you in a whole lot of trouble. I am indebted to the Canadian Jesuit/Catholic Boarding School I attended in Ondo &#8211; St. Joseph&#8217;s College. At the time, the boarding high school was well known for its academic rigor and discipline. But one thing in particular that I&#8217;ve come to really appreciate over the years, was the mandatory learning of the Yoruba language during the first two years of a five-year study. Also, while Mass was in Latin and English, the music had a generous sprinkling of uplifting Yoruba hymns backed by traditional drums. As I look back, I owe my love of the Yoruba language and indeed for Nigeria, to this linguistic and cultural exposure. Which is one of the reasons why I never cease to be amazed many upwardly mobile and not-too-upwardly mobile Nigerian and African elite, when it comes to transferring a knowledge of indigenous languages to their children. In the case of my fellow Yoruba, it is not unusual to be regaled with pride about how their children only speak English and not Yoruba. With an affected Yoruba-English accent denoting social class, this is how the laissez fair commentary goes &#8211; &#8220;Ehhh &#8230; so mo pe awon omo aiye isiyin, won o gbo Yoruba mo. Oyinbo nikan ni won gbo.&#8221; The proud revelation and linguistic snobbery is typically followed up with a little logic as to why this is the case. Indeed languages do become endangered for multiple reasons, including &#8211; 1.  Unprecedented urban mobility and migration, in which children grow up in places where the language is either not generally spoke or where it is no longer taught in the community. 2. Inter-ethnic marriages and relationships. 3. A tech-driven world that is dominated by less than a dozen global languages. Consequently, social media, TV and digital programs, children&#8217;s programs, computer games, mobile apps and news content do not favor indigenous languages. 4. Dislocation of populations due to military or political conflict. 5. Economic migration that ends up leaving the older and elderly speakers of a language behind in rural communities.  Since a language cannot live without children speakers, and as elderly rural speakers of the language die out, so too is it that languages cannot survive, and inevitably die. This is the dilemma that has befallen the Yoruba language and countless African and indigenous languages globally. Language is all-encompassing. It is not just a means of communicating. It is also a repository of values, customs, culture, and history. In short, it is the embodiment of who a people are. Therefore, the loss or extinction of a language is simply not simply an inability to speak in a way and manner that is generally understood. It is the loss of identity &#8211; linguistically, culturally, psychologically, and historically. According to &#8216;Atlas of Languages in Danger of Disappearing,&#8217; published by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, and (UNESCO), today, there are an estimated 7,000 languages spoken worldwide. Half of the world’s total population speaks only eight of the most common. Also, more than 3,000 languages are said to be spoken by fewer than 10,000 people each. So what can we do about it? Fold our arms? Bemoan our fate and the seemingly unstoppable collision with the train called &#8216;globalisation&#8217;? Or do we take stock, recognise what is at stake, turn adversity into opportunity, and innovatively add value to a tremendous resource that we own? 1. For starters, our policymakers could go back to the drawing boards and, once again, make the instruction of indigenous languages compulsory from kindergarten through high school. 2. Family and community members could and should play collective roles as custodians of national languages. The only dilemma is that in the 21st century, many younger and older adults are linguistically challenged themselves, and as such are also in need of tutoring and learning. 3. Growing up in Lagos, one of my most favorite TV programs was the live broadcast of the extemporaneous National High School Debates. I can still hear the opening music ringing in my ears. Fast forward to 2019, policymakers, content producers, advertisers, and the private and public sector, could team up to create regionally televised elementary and high school debates in indigenous languages. To motivate the younger generation, awards should include generous academic prizes and scholarships, regional and national mentions in full-page newspaper adverts, and include opportunities to meet with and be honored by leading public and private sector leaders. 4. Business and tech savvy entrepreneurs have an unprecedented opportunity to create indigenous language podcasts and apps with valuable and creative content. I for one would love to support the creation of an award for the best digital content in an indigenous African language, be it a children&#8217;s animation program, computer game, podcast, etc. 5. Finally, each one of us can daily brush up on our own language skills and do so with exceptional pride. For too long, we have bought into the trope that &#8216;local&#8217; is bad or not &#8216;sexy&#8217; at all. Every African language is a repository of oral history and collective values. Proficiency therefore provides speakers with an intuitive sense of who they are, where they have come from, who they potentially can be, and where they are going.



*Dr. Victor Oladokun is Director of Communication and External Relations, African Development Bank

article

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How Kenya Airways plans to double its fleet over the next 5 years

Moody’s lowers South Africa’s growth forecast after Q1 GDP contraction, what you need to know…

Crypto Trader: Has Bitcoin entered a Bull Market?

Boosting rice production in Nigeria

Nigeria withdraws six oil licenses over ‘legacy debts’

Kenya’s president Kenyatta renews central bank governor’s term, what you should know…

Assessing Nigerian banks’ non-performing loans

Oil & gas stocks plunge on trade war fears

Jeff Radebe reflects on state capture, corruption & Mandela

Chinese tech stocks have been in a ‘bloodbath’ but the future is bright: Naspers CEO

Drastic structural reform required to turnaround SA’s economy

What does the future hold for Nigeria’s economy?

Zimbabwe difficult to read – Nampak CEO

Can sweet potatoes be a solution to Africa’s food problem?

Bank of Kigali unveils new platform to bridge gap in Rwanda’s agriculture sector

U.S seeks deeper ties with Africa

Op-Ed: Why Africa urgently needs to save its languages from extinction

News Tips

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