The Akamai Global Money Page

By James Abola We often hear about offshore investment and mutual funds but what do they actually mean. The term offshore indicates something foreign or outside a domestic territory. Offshore investing or alternative investing is conducting financial business outside of the investor’s home country or home currency. Most offshore investments offer high returns, low or no taxes and a high level of confidentiality. Dictators and corrupt politicians in Africa have given a bad name to offshore investing for many Africans. Most people have heard stories of politicians who steal resources from their countries and go and deposit it in numbered Swiss Bank accounts. Both global and national developments in the financial sector have made it more difficult for the so called blood money to be stashed away by politicians. These same developments have opened opportunities for honest citizens to participate in offshore investment. One of the main offshore investment vehicles is the mutual fund. A mutu...

By James Abola Studies have found that Ugandans are one of the most entrepreneurial people in the world going by the number of new businesses springing up every year. It is not possible however for everybody to be involved in business as means of growing or sustaining their wealth. Some people must find a passive means of investing. The passive investor provides money and does not have to report to office at 8 am and knock off at 5 pm in order to get a return. The favoured arena of the passive investor is the securities market, like the Uganda Securities Exchange (USE). The major items traded on the securities exchange or market are shares and bonds. Shares and stocks are the same, only that Americans prefer stocks while the British use shares. Shares represent units of ownership in a public company. In the case of Uganda examples of public companies include Uganda Clays, Bank of Baroda and BAT (Uganda). Shares are the most common ownership investment traded on the market. Bonds on the...