Our guide to the issues likely to impact businesses and the key measures taken by African governments in response to COVID-19.
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Kenyans have been in a state of panic since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus. From a projects perspective, contractors have been a particularly worried lot, seeing as the pandemic has affected supply chains and their ability to meet their contractual obligations.
In the wake of the spread of the COVID-19 global pandemic, the real estate and loan markets in Kenya are bound to be affected. On 16 March 2020, H.E. Uhuru Kenyatta, the President of Kenya revealed that three (and now 25) patients had tested positive for the virus culminating in presidential directives towards preventing its spread to the rest of the population
The Cabinet Secretary for National Treasury and Planning recently published the Stamp Duty (Valuation of Immovable Property) Regulations, 2020 and the Stamp Duty (Amendment) Regulations, 2020 with the objective of simplifying land transactions in Kenya as part of the “ease of doing business” initiative. The key highlights of these regulations are set out below.
As the global pandemic continues to wreak havoc on economies and businesses, an inevitable succession of profit warnings and bankruptcy notices have peppered the news reports. In the US, we have seen household names such as JCPenney and Hertz filing for bankruptcy under the infamous Chapter 11 provisions. And in the UK, behemoth retailer brands such as Debenhams and the Arcadia group have been severely hit and are undergoing surgical procedures, including deep headcount cuts.
With a challenging economic outlook ahead, international investment into East Africa and its people is more important than ever. The energy sector is primed for such investment. In fact, it has been a focus sector for many years, as evident in the ambitious public targets and projects of countries in the region such as Kenya’s Big 4 Agenda and Vision 2030, Ethiopia’s Growth and Transformation Plan II, the development of the South Sudanese National Electricity Bill and the Ruizizi III hydroelectric power project which will provide power to Burundi, Eastern DRC and Rwanda.
On July 16, 2020 the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), also informally known as the European Court of Justice or the supreme court of the European Union, rendered a judgment of gargantuan proportions in the Schrems II Case concerning the transfer of personal data by the ubiquitous behemoth called Facebook Inc.