BY TOM ODHIAMBO The Panama leaks are probably bigger than Wikileaks. Whereas the latter revealed what politicians do as they pursue power and more power, Panama leaks tell us why too many countries are poor, why corruption is big business today, why there is such a cozy relationship between businessmen and politicians, why offshore banking is so popular even to wage earners. Panama leaks have offered us a peek into where ‘real’ money is banked; not in the ‘local’ big banks, but in some obscure, semi-states. And this money is both legit and illegitimate. In other words, in the world…
Author: Editor
By David Wanjala I recently hiked a lift from Nairobi to my upcountry home in Busia County with a friend who was resuming duty in Kampala after a long recess in Nairobi. To beat driving fatigue that comes with the sweltering heat and emotional stress of long distance driving – 656km in this case, to be precise – we hit the road at 4 a.m. Driving in shifts, we were in Kisumu by 10:30 a.m. and by midday I was dropped off at Bumala, leaving James to brave the remaining 253 kilometres to Kampala by himself. That’s when the reality…
BY PETER WANYONYI For whatever cosmic reason, humans are not ordinarily endowed with the ability to foresee the future given generally varying factors. Given a few variables and a bit of experience, we can reasonably forecast what will happen over the coming one week or so. Where matters are very predictable – such as in politics – one can generally predict almost anything with a fair degree of accuracy. But forecasting in business is tough, and the emerging discipline of Data Science is only now attempting to build serious forecasting into business processes using more than just guesswork: it uses…
BY VICTOR ADAR Total’s love affair with young entrepreneurs who are under 35 years started in earnest in 2015 when the first “startupper of The Year” challenge was launched. A glimmer of encouragement, enterprises which are less than two years old not only benefit from customised support and coaching, but also receive financial aid to develop their projects from Total Kenya. This time the overall winner took home Sh2.5 million, the first runner-up Sh1.5 million while the second runner-up Sh1 million. Samuel Rigu of Safi Organics Limited, Susan Okioma of JSIL Space Solutions and Kevin Mureithi of Eco Blocks and…
BY ROWAN BENN The final Land Rover Defenders rolled off the production line in Solihull earlier this year having manufactured more than 2 million cars since 1948. This icon started life as a military vehicle. Renowned for its versatility and strength, it is believed that an incredible 70% of all Land Rovers ever built are still in existence. So what happens to them? Some are running around the grand estates of England, mud coated and full of dogs. But this stalwart of the English countryside has a split personality. Wealthy fans have morphed the trusty Defender into an uber cool…
BY ANTONY MUTUNGA East Africa’s bubble in real estate has amazed various overseas investors who are now keen to shift their attention from West Africa. James Muriu, regional retail manager at Knight Frank says that there has never been a better time to invest in East Africa. This is currently visible in the number of real estate ventures that have been put up in the region including Garden City mall and Tatu city in Kenya and the upcoming Vision city in Rwanda. With the sector still growing, East Africa may be the new king when it comes to real estate…
Growth in Africa is expected to average over 4% over the next five years, but is still heavily commodity-dependent, according to ICAEW (The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales). In its report Economic Insight: Africa Q1 2016 Produced by Oxford Economics, ICAEW’s partner and accredited expert in global economic forecasting, and NKC African Economics, the accountancy and finance body points to good news for African economies, but warns that manufacturing still accounts for a small share of output and says the old model of exporting raw materials is becoming unsustainable. The report notes that GDP growth in Africa is…
Increased use of electronic payment products contributes to economic prosperity, a study has shown. Commissioned by Visa, the research carried out by Moody’s Analytics and released on March 10 investigated the impact of electronic payments on economic growth across 70 countries between 2011 and 2015 The study found that increased use of electronic payment products, including credit, debit and prepaid cards, added $296B to GDP, while raising household consumption of goods and services by an average of 0.18% per year. In addition, Moody’s economists estimate that the equivalent of 2.6 million new jobs were created on average per year over…
By Kosta Kioleoglou From the beginning of the year 2016, several articles have been written concerning the real estate market performance. Several of them were optimistic predicting a very good year for the economy and the property industry. Others were not so optimistic but rather more skeptic about the current situation in the country and the global economy, expressing concerns about the sustainability and the future performance of the country’s economy as well as the real estate market. Today, heading towards the end of the first quarter, it looks like the second group of people is going to be proved…
BY STEVEN ORENGO ‘Good ethics is good business’, is perhaps one of many platitudinous phrases used in the corporate world. The ruthless pursuit of wealth, power and outright corporate greed in recent corporate scandals in Kenya has demonstrated that this ethical catch phrase has no sway in many boardrooms in Kenya. From boardroom wrangles at CMC Kenya, shareholder wrangles in the Tatu City Mega real estate project and the recent action by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) that placed Dubai, Imperial and Chase banks under receivership due to fraudulent activities by management and/or directors are but a few cases…