Uganda’s capital city Kampala is among Africa’s top ten dynamic business cities, according to a recent report dubbed ‘Into Africa: The continent’s Cities of Opportunity’ authored by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

The report concentrates on the continent’s 20 cities which were judged as ‘most dynamic and future focused’, placing  Kampala in ninth position behind other East African cities of Dar es Salaam (1^st), Nairobi (3^rd) and Kigali (7^th). Dar es Salaam also tops Lusaka, Nairobi, Lagos and Accra on opportunity index.

Others on top ten list are Abidjan, Addis Ababa and Cairo. The report was structured around the critical issues of the business community, as well as those of the office holders and other public authorities who are responsible for improving the collective life of each city examined here.

The report indicates that when infrastructure, human capital and security are in place, culture and society starts to flourish. It further shows when investing in Africa, investors consider current vis-à-vis potential development, location, nature of opportunity among others.

“African cities when being assessed need to be looked at through a different lens, as current standings and future potential tell different city stories,” the report indicates in part. The cities were contested around economic opportunities which are driven by demands of the emerging middle class— consumers, technology, infrastructure, tourism, and financial services.

Meanwhile, despite topping the opportunity index, Dar es Salaam was not featured in top ten overall index after being placed at position 15. Nairobi, Kampala and Addis Ababa featured in both top ten indices—opportunity and overall.

Others are Accra, Lagos, and Cairo. Also Dar es Salaam city was not in the top ten attractive Foreign Direct Investment FDIs. Nairobi leads as the best city in Africa that attracted most FDIs followed by Accra and Lagos.

Others are Johannesburg, Cairo, Casablanca, Abidjan, Tunis, Algiers and Lusaka, and analysts say the report is an eye-opener to policy makers especially for countries to develop adequate infrastructure and human capital investment.

“This can limit the economic potential of a city,” the report says of the inadequate infrastructure in most cities of Africa.

The role of the public sector policy makers and related development of institutions in guiding a city is important to the private sector, it adds.

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Despite a seeming slump in economic activities, traffic on the global payments network Swift has grown by 20.1% in East Africa over the past year, indicating an increase in  trade flows in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda.

East Africa is one Africa’s fastest growing economies and is a significant growth area for Swift, and according to its head of Sub-Sahara Africa, Denis Kruger, the major growth in Swift traffic volumes could indicate an increase in  trade flows, both within the East African region and between East Africa and other countries.

According to Swift, East Africa has outperformed the total growth for Swift globally, which amounts to 8.2%.

The figures released late last week also show that intra-regional traffic in the region is up by 19.8% compared to 2015, now accounting for 69% of payments traffic in East Africa.

“We are committed to supporting the community in the region, including through the East African Payments System, which is delivering more efficient payments across East Africa,” Kruger says.

Since 2013, the average number of daily messages in the region has almost doubled, from 15,234 to 27,907 in 2016.

Swift research has shown that its traffic data is closely correlated to economic activity. A rise in traffic volumes in therefore a sign of a long-term growth trajectory for East Africa, despite challenging global conditions, the company says.

The figures, Swift notes, reflect the success of the East African Payment System (EAPS), which was established by the East African Community in 2013 with the aim to reduce transaction time and lower the cost of doing business in the region.

The multi-currency system, which operates on the Swift network, links domestic payments systems in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda, making cross-border fund transfers within the countries easier, was supporting the free movement of goods, labour and services.

The rest of the African continent similarly saw a good level of growth, with total message traffic volumes up 15.4% over the past year. In comparison, Americas grew at 7.8% and Asia Pacific at 5.4%.

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This morning three lucky Airtel subscribers walked away with huge sums of money as part of the on-going Mega Masappe promotion.

Boaz Owomugisha from Mbarara, Vincent Wamirevu from Kyenjojo and Tadeo Lulika from Kakiri were each handed Ugshs 1 million by the Airtel Uganda IT Director, Mr. James Museba.

As part of the draw, Yusuf Tomko Kajombi, Bernard Elasu and Ibrahim Musoba took home brand new motorcycles while Nicholas Rukumbwaho, a resident from Old Kampala, drove away with a grand prize of a brand new car – the ninth car to be given away in the Mega Masappe promotion.

Handing over the prizes Museba, thanked the winners for taking part in the promotion, saying it was introduced to reward Airtel Uganda subscribers.

Museba highlighted that so far, nine new cars, Ugsh 40Million and 40 motorbikes have been given out in this promotion.

“We are already seeing subscribers bettering their lives in different ways thanks to these prizes, so I urge everyone subscribed to Airtel to dial *162# and take part in the promotion,” he concluded.

Launched at the start of the July, the 90-day recharge promotion requires subscribers to opt into it by dialing *162# and selecting option 1 to opt in, option 2 to check target and option 3 to redeem their data bonus – which will be broken down into Voice, SMS and Data at 50%, 10% and 40% respectively.

This bonus, however, does not apply to social packs, quarterly, annual and free bundles.

Mega Masappe promotion subscriber bonus will be given instantly on the achievement of the daily target. For example, if a subscriber’s bonus target is Shs2,000 and they recharge with that Shs1,000, they will receive 100% bonus of the same value under the Voice, SMS & Data split.

However, if they recharge with another Shs1,000 on the same day, they will not get a second bonus.

Daily and weekly prizes will be given away every Friday for the entire duration of the promotion.

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