Climate change is already impacting business in Africa, executives say

A business survey found that 81% of Africa-focused executives say that climate change is already impacting their organisations. The survey of senior executives working across British International Investment’s portfolio of companies and funds in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean – which included 70 respondents operating in Africa – found that businesses operating in Africa identified drought as the top physical climate risk at present, followed by flooding and extreme temperatures. On a ten-year horizon, drought and extreme temperatures became the joint top risks, followed by flooding.

Kenya Airways shows operating profit for first time in years

Kenya Airways made a 10.5bn KSh ($80m) operating profit in 2023, its first since 2017. The majority stateowned firm attributed the performance to a more than 50% jump in revenue, anchored by a 35% growth in passenger numbers to just over five million. “These figures highlight the airline’s remarkable performance over the year and provide encouraging signs of continued recovery within the air transportation sector,” chairman Michael Joseph said. Losses after tax reduced to almost 23bn shillings from more than 38bn shillings the year before.

Venture capital in Africa had a disappointing year in 2023

Both the volume and value of venture capital investment in Africa decreased by close to a third in 2023, according to the African Private Capital Association. This is the first decline the industry has seen in a decade. With the inclusion of venture debt, venture inflows to Africa last year amounted to $4.5bn across 603 deals – $2bn less than the year prior. “Africa’s venture ecosystem experienced a marked downturn in 2023, mirroring broader declines in venture capital to startups in the global market. This funding drought led several earlystage companies to either significantly downscale operations or shutter completely... 2023 was a resoundingly disappointing turnout for venture capital in Africa,” the organisation said.

Ruto commands Kenya’s state-owned companies to cut budgets

Kenyan President William Ruto has said his government will launch a consolidation process to stop the duplication of functions and reduce wastage at state companies, which could result in the winding-up of loss-making firms. Speaking to chairs and CEOs of state corporations at State House in Nairobi, Ruto directed companies to reduce their recurrent budgets by 30%. He also ordered commercial state corporations to remit 80% of their profits after tax to the National Treasury, and said that the government will give directions for the remaining 20%. Regulatory institutions were ordered to remit 90% of their surplus funds to the Treasury. Ruto has previously expressed his intention of privatising some state-owned firms.