The new Azure Stack service will allow companies to run a private Microsoft cloud within East Africa, rather than at one of Microsoft’s 54 public data centres located outside the region. This means users benefit from the cutting-edge security protocols developed and run by Microsoft on its cloud platforms, while holding their data locally, which makes data uploading faster for databases that can be as large as one terabyte or more.
The forum, which attracted close to 100 attendees from the private and public sector of both countries, was meant to showcase investment and business opportunities in Rwanda they can partner in.
The firm had, however, promised to revive the platform at a later date, saying that they were giving themselves time to study the market and strategize accordingly to be relevant in the new market. The platform is now under Jumia Food.
According to the Nexus Commonwealth Network, a publication for the Commonwealth Secretariat, Rwanda has a natural reserve of methane gas in Lake Kivu, estimated at 55 billion cubic metres, with a further 150 to 250 million cubic metres of methane being generated annually.
South Sudan has over the past year demonstrated a commitment to peace, which gives the country an opportunity to build long-lasting economic development and strengthen its engagement with the regional and international investment community.
The country produced 300,000 barrels of oil per day then, but the crisis dropped output to 170,000, owing to the shutdown of most oil fields during the unpredictable season.
For a while, oil and gas has been the talk of Uganda, and the discovery is that the country has 6.5 billion barrels of oil reserves, of which 1.4 billion barrels are economically viable or recoverable. Such developments have, however, been stalled by the fact that the Oil Companies have not made Final Investment Decision (FID). FID means the point at which everything is in place for a project to say “yes, let’s go ahead”.
The Cabinet Secretary said Kenya is on course with the exploitation of its oil fields, with the country expected to ship its first 200,000 barrels of crude oil in June 2019 after hitting the 200,000-barrel mark set by the government for it to be able to ship out the product.
The interest in Kenya’s upstream oil and gas sector developed significantly following oil discoveries in Uganda and recent gas discoveries offshore East Africa.
Government targets to construct 500,000 low-cost housing units in five years, to meet the annual deficits. This is in addition to increasing manufacturing, ensuring food security and providing universal health coverage.