Africa Briefs
Kenya clamps down on gambling ads
Kenya introduced new gambling regulations on Thursday, including banning advertising outdoors and on social media, the interior minister said, after highlighting last month how it had become a problem for the young and poor.
Advertising of gambling will be banned between 6 am and 10 pm as will the endorsement by celebrities.
The gaming industry in Kenya has grown substantially over the last five years, the ministry said, to 200 billion shillings (US$1.98 billion) from 2 billion, employing 5 000 people in the process.
In April, interior minister Fred Matiangi said betting had become a problem in Kenya, especially among young people. He said 54% of Kenyans involved in betting were low-incoming earners.
"76% of youth in Kenya are bettors - this is the highest figure in Africa," he said, according to his ministry's Twitter feed, "while half a million have been blacklisted by lenders because they borrowed to bet and failed to pay back."
Under the new rules, any gambling advertising will need approval by the regulator and will be required to contain a warning message which must constitute a third of the actual advertisement. – Nampa/Reuters
Little to celebrate for Zim workers on Labour Day
Unions in Zimbabwe marked May Day bemoaning worsening economic woes plaguing the country including price hikes and massive joblessness which have left workers with little to celebrate.
"This year is another bleak year with absolutely nothing to celebrate for the common worker and the common citizen," Japhet Moyo, secretary of the country's main trade union Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) told AFP.
May Day commemorations came just over a week after the price of bread almost doubled in Zimbabwe as runaway inflation which marked the rule of long-time authoritarian leader Robert Mugabe returns to haunt his successor Emmerson Mnangagwa.
"The challenge that we have right now is that we don't have a stable currency," said a worker in Harare who only gave his first name as Hilary.
"So you get paid today after three or four days, the money is worthless, you can't really buy anything that is meaningful.
"Prices are increasing every day," he said as the official inflation rate stood at 67% in March although in reality prices of many basics have more than trebled in recent months. – Nampa/AFP
Tunisia raises minimum wages
Tunisia raised the minimum wage for industrial and farm workers as well as pensions for hundreds of thousands of private-sector retirees by 6.5% in a move to defuse discontent over economic hardships.
A government statement said prime minister Youssef Chahed had approved a rise in the monthly minimum wage for industrial and agricultural workers to 403 dinars (US$133.93).
Chahed's decision came in the face of pressure from Tunisia's foreign creditors for a freeze in wages in the public sector, which includes some industrial workers, to reduce its large budget deficit.
The North African country has been hailed as the Arab Spring’s only democratic success story because protests toppled autocrat Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 2011 without triggering violent upheaval, as happened in Libya, Egypt and Syria.
But since then, nine cabinets have failed to resolve Tunisia’s economic woes including high inflation and unemployment, and impatience over its slowness in carrying out reforms is rising among lenders such as the IMF.
The IMF has pushed Tunisia to freeze public-sector wages - the bill for which doubled to about 16 billion dinars (US$5.5 billion) in 2018 from 7.6 billion in 2010 - to reduce them from about 15.5% of GDP now to 12.5% in 2020. – Nampa/Reuters
Kenya introduced new gambling regulations on Thursday, including banning advertising outdoors and on social media, the interior minister said, after highlighting last month how it had become a problem for the young and poor.
Advertising of gambling will be banned between 6 am and 10 pm as will the endorsement by celebrities.
The gaming industry in Kenya has grown substantially over the last five years, the ministry said, to 200 billion shillings (US$1.98 billion) from 2 billion, employing 5 000 people in the process.
In April, interior minister Fred Matiangi said betting had become a problem in Kenya, especially among young people. He said 54% of Kenyans involved in betting were low-incoming earners.
"76% of youth in Kenya are bettors - this is the highest figure in Africa," he said, according to his ministry's Twitter feed, "while half a million have been blacklisted by lenders because they borrowed to bet and failed to pay back."
Under the new rules, any gambling advertising will need approval by the regulator and will be required to contain a warning message which must constitute a third of the actual advertisement. – Nampa/Reuters
Little to celebrate for Zim workers on Labour Day
Unions in Zimbabwe marked May Day bemoaning worsening economic woes plaguing the country including price hikes and massive joblessness which have left workers with little to celebrate.
"This year is another bleak year with absolutely nothing to celebrate for the common worker and the common citizen," Japhet Moyo, secretary of the country's main trade union Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) told AFP.
May Day commemorations came just over a week after the price of bread almost doubled in Zimbabwe as runaway inflation which marked the rule of long-time authoritarian leader Robert Mugabe returns to haunt his successor Emmerson Mnangagwa.
"The challenge that we have right now is that we don't have a stable currency," said a worker in Harare who only gave his first name as Hilary.
"So you get paid today after three or four days, the money is worthless, you can't really buy anything that is meaningful.
"Prices are increasing every day," he said as the official inflation rate stood at 67% in March although in reality prices of many basics have more than trebled in recent months. – Nampa/AFP
Tunisia raises minimum wages
Tunisia raised the minimum wage for industrial and farm workers as well as pensions for hundreds of thousands of private-sector retirees by 6.5% in a move to defuse discontent over economic hardships.
A government statement said prime minister Youssef Chahed had approved a rise in the monthly minimum wage for industrial and agricultural workers to 403 dinars (US$133.93).
Chahed's decision came in the face of pressure from Tunisia's foreign creditors for a freeze in wages in the public sector, which includes some industrial workers, to reduce its large budget deficit.
The North African country has been hailed as the Arab Spring’s only democratic success story because protests toppled autocrat Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 2011 without triggering violent upheaval, as happened in Libya, Egypt and Syria.
But since then, nine cabinets have failed to resolve Tunisia’s economic woes including high inflation and unemployment, and impatience over its slowness in carrying out reforms is rising among lenders such as the IMF.
The IMF has pushed Tunisia to freeze public-sector wages - the bill for which doubled to about 16 billion dinars (US$5.5 billion) in 2018 from 7.6 billion in 2010 - to reduce them from about 15.5% of GDP now to 12.5% in 2020. – Nampa/Reuters
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