Author: NLM Correspondent

By Billy Owino The spread of the COVID-19 pandemic across Africa has seen a surge in digital payments and e-commerce transactions as financial institutions scramble to offer businesses and consumers contactless ways of spending, borrowing and lending, and making payments. Cashless solutions like mobile lending and digital payments were already growing rapidly on the continent even before the pandemic struck. Now, we could see a scenario where the effects of COVID-19 on our society will create permanent changes in the way we use digital payments, cards and cash, creating both opportunities and challenges for financial institutions. Even in 2020, millions…

About 21.7 million Nigerians are unemployed—it’s a figure that is higher than the population in 35 of Africa’s 54 countries. That number will likely rise given Nigeria has also just suffered its worst quarterly economic contraction in over a decade due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The lingering slump in the global oil trade has proven particularly costly, and dashes any hopes of a quick economic turnaround. To its credit, Nigeria’s government has pushed social intervention programs amid pandemic, from cash relief for its poor to a $126 million credit facility for small and medium businesses. But so far, those plans…

By Simon Roberts and Jason Bell The COVID-19 pandemic and consequent lockdown measures have had a huge negative impact on producers and consumers. Food production has been disrupted, and incomes have been lost. But a far more devastating welfare consequence of the pandemic could be reduced access to food. A potential rise in food insecurity is a key policy point for many countries. The World Economic Forum has stated this pandemic is set to “radically exacerbate food insecurity in Africa”. This, and other supplier shocks, such as locust swarms in East Africa, have made many African economies more dependent on…

Military officers overthrew Mali’s government in a coup d’état in August 2020. Among the more worrying aspects of the coup is the fact that a number of the officers involved had received foreign training, most notably the US. In fact, this was the second time in eight years that US-trained officers in Mali had launched a coup. To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, to lose one civilian government to a coup launched by foreign-trained officers is a misfortune; to lose two looks like carelessness. But does US foreign military training provoke coups d’état? The short answer is we don’t know. Until we…

It’s easy to make people like you in a normal office. But how can you charm colleagues and clients via video link? You’re on a work call, telling some colleagues the story of that time you accidentally blew up the kitchen. You know, the one where you were carrying a worktop from another room, and you bashed a wire… Anyway, it’s going well; you’re starting to see smiles flicker across their faces. This really is a classic. Then, out of the blue, your connection fails. By the time you re-join the meeting, the conversation has moved on – now your…

Kenyans have been urged to be on their guard against Covid-19-related scams at a time when criminals are taking advantage of the increased number of people looking for information about the disease to defraud them or steal their personal details. Cybercriminals are exploiting the COVID-19 pandemic as a screen for their activities, sending emails and text messages from seemingly legitimate organisations with information about COVID-19. Once people click on the links in emails or text messages, they unknowingly download software which allows cybercriminals to take control of their devices and access their personal information and financial data, which could lead…

By Antony Mutunga Billions of people are flocking the Internet and social media as more information becomes available and easily accessible to them. This has resulted in many, especially the youth, spending hours of their lives glued to their phones and devices. The more hours people spend online, the more information they are exposed to. After all, information or data is the new oil, the most valuable asset. Data is extremely profitable, and that is all there is to it, really. Natural resources are almost depleted in the world, but a new kind of stock is on the cards: the…

Social media have opened up spaces for political candidates to engage with voters in more direct ways compared to traditional forms of campaigns such as rallies, billboard advertising, and the legacy media. Social media enhance the flow of information between candidates and voters. Traditional media in contrast are expensive; the feedback is constrained and they privilege elite candidates. Political campaigns are all about informing, mobilising, involving and connecting with voters. Social media amplify this and build a community of advocates for a candidate running for office. They allow politicians to run permanent campaigns and to address a more complete range of policy…

Rights with respect to executory contracts— contracts under which the corporation and the counterparty still have material obligations to each other By Michael H. Strub The economic impact of the pandemic has been catastrophic. As of the end of August, bankruptcy filings by companies with at least a half-billion dollars in liabilities had surged 120% year-over-year, according to the investment bank Jefferies. For many of these companies, their intellectual property, including patents and trademarks, are significant assets, and counsel for these businesses, as well as counsel for their creditors, licensees and licensors, will need to understand these issues that arise…

By Jonathan Steffanoni Superannuation law wears the robes of equity and trusts but is a child of the age of statutes. The ever-growing body of law which relates to superannuation funds is mostly found in legislation… not in case law. Making good sense of the regulatory obligations on superannuation funds is primarily a matter of understanding how to interpret legislation. The relative importance of the superannuation system to society means that the industry is faced with a torrent of regulatory consultations, exposure drafts, legislation, regulations, legislative instruments, class orders, prudential standards, tax rulings, regulatory guides and so on. It is…