Clutching a pink plastic folder holding copies of books like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and Busy Bear, John Katalaga climbs onto his motorbike taxi, ready for another mission.
His destination is 30 minutes away, where an excited seven-year-old waits for her weekly delivery of three books.
Mr. Katalaga drives a motorbike taxi, or boda boda as they’re called here, to deliver books in and out of Kampala as part of the Malaika Mobile Library – the first of its kind in Uganda.
“I like doing this job,” he says, bracing himself for the afternoon gridlock. “I like that children are reading books now.”
Children are the primary borrowers of this mobile library, which was always the aim, says Rosey Sembataya, who founded the venture in late 2014. As an English teacher and owner of a publishing house, she has seen firsthand how hard it is for children in Uganda to gain access to reading material, and how that handicap has trickled down into the classroom “where the effects of not reading are [so] glaring it hurts,” she says.
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Mozambique: Employers can now register all employees, annually, online
The Ministerial Order (no. 104/2015), dated November 27, 2015, permits employers to post their annual list of foreign national/national employees through a new online The Department of Labour, Employment and Social Security oversees the online process. Previously, employers were only able to submit their reports via paper submission. The Nominal Relation Spreadsheet is due by April 30 of each year.
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Uganda Starts To Build A Reading Culture With Its First Mobile Library
Clutching a pink plastic folder holding copies of books like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and Busy Bear, John Katalaga climbs onto his motorbike taxi, ready for another mission.
His destination is 30 minutes away, where an excited seven-year-old waits for her weekly delivery of three books.
Mr. Katalaga drives a motorbike taxi, or boda boda as they’re called here, to deliver books in and out of Kampala as part of the Malaika Mobile Library – the first of its kind in Uganda.
“I like doing this job,” he says, bracing himself for the afternoon gridlock. “I like that children are reading books now.”
Children are the primary borrowers of this mobile library, which was always the aim, says Rosey Sembataya, who founded the venture in late 2014. As an English teacher and owner of a publishing house, she has seen firsthand how hard it is for children in Uganda to gain access to reading material, and how that handicap has trickled down into the classroom “where the effects of not reading are [so] glaring it hurts,” she says.
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What Happened To Nelson Mandela’s Plucky And Inspiring African Nation?
This country teeters on the edge of an economic cliff. At the bottom is the debt rating known as junk, which economists say is a distinct possibility in coming months.
South Africa would have to pay much higher interest rates to borrow money. Spending on health and education, already squeezed by falling revenue, would have to be cut, heightening widespread unrest.
What happened to Nelson Mandela’s plucky and inspiring African nation?
The answers include many things beyond its control: a worldwide decline in commodities prices; waning demand from China, its biggest trading partner; and the worst drought in 50 years.
But there is a consensus among analysts that one of the biggest problems is President Jacob Zuma.
After apartheid ended in 1994, the ruling African National Congress and business adhered to an unwritten agreement: No matter how much socialist rhetoric the government used publicly, it would always maintain fiscal rectitude and a strong central bank.
Zuma seems to have blown up that understanding.
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Finding Africa’s diamond in the rough
Robert Hersov declares himself the “unelected mayor of Africa”. For years, the South African native says, he has trumpeted the continent, spurring businessmen abroad to invest there. But it was only recently that he himself trusted his homeland.
“All my family live in Africa, in various parts. For many years I tried to externalise my life, my education, my wealth, because in the 70s, 80s, 90s, there was a big question mark over Africa: is it collapsing? Is it turning into the inevitable corrupt, inefficient, basket case that everyone expected? So I decided to make my life an international life but I was always drawn back to Africa,” Hersov says.
Although he is still based in London, three years ago Hersov cleared his slate to create Invest Africa and now spends his waking moments encouraging and assisting hundreds of foreign investors to move into Africa. Through the exclusive club he created in 2013, he and fellow advisors including entrepreneur Ashish J Thakkar, former Barclays chief executive Bob Diamond and former UK ministers, introduce members to African heads of state and helps to seal deals worth tens of millions of dollars.
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