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Africa Live: Bodies of cult victims released in Kenya - BBC News Africa Live: Ugandan civil servants told to exercise weekly - BBC News
(about 1 hour later)
Priyanka Sippy Kenya's Safaricom is expanding its mobile money transfer service M-Pesa to West Africa.
BBC News When the service was launched in Kenya in 2007 it revolutionised banking and money services in the country.
The Ugandan government has instructed all civil servants to spend two hours a week doing physical exercise to keep them fit and healthy. But it is entering a much more crowded market in West Africa.
The directive was shared in a letter to government agencies from the head of public service, Lucy Nakyobe, who said the sessions would "help save the lives of staff and reduce the disease burden". There are more new mobile money customers in the region than anywhere else in the world, a recent report found.
The Government of Uganda also tweeted that the initiative will "tame the rising burden of lifestyle disease" in the country: In Nigeria, for example, less than half of all adults are said to have a bank account, meaning many rely on mobile money services such as Palmpay and Opay.
It comes two years after a national health survey showed obesity rates in the country had risen from 17% to 26% in the last 17 years. The M-Pesa plans on were announced on Monday.
This is not the first time Uganda's government has introduced initiatives to encourage exercise. In 2018, Uganda brought in the national day for physical activity which sees sporting activities held across the country. It's part of a deal with Access Holdings - the parent company of Africa's largest bank, and a Nigerian wealth management group called Coronation Group.
Dr Charles Oyoo Akiya, the commissioner for non-communicable diseases prevention, told local media that the health ministry had already been running exercise sessions for their staff, and they wanted to see it adopted across all departments.
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