BY VICTOR ADAR If you thought there would be a more robust growth this year, think again. Financial services firm, Metropol, says growth will be passive because apart from the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR), the other hotbed projects such as Lamu Port, the crude oil pipeline, the power sector stuff like Lamu coal plant, Likoni gas plant, and Kinangop wind, and the 10,000km roads programme, have not taken off as expected and will not therefore generate the expected growth. In an economic growth report, the firm further indicates that the expected slow growth is attributable to challenges to do with…
Author: Editor
James Muliro The Central Bank of Kenya has poured cold water on attempts by Members of Parliament to set a lid on the maximum interest rates banks should charge their customers. The move came days after the banking sector regulator released a list of bank rates charged by different lenders in Kenya. This comes on the backdrop of increased clamour for the reduction of interest rates, which have remained beyond the reach of many. Legislators are among the many voices that have called for the regulation of interest rates as a measure of prompting them to lower the cost of…
By DR WILLY MUTUNGA County Governments and their leaders have given practical meaning to the dictum ‘government by the people, for the people, and of the people’. It has yielded friendlier notions of government. Devolution has made the people see government not necessarily as ‘an agency of force’ but as ’an agency of development’. Devolution helps make the point that government need not be ‘ugly’ or ‘fierce’ to qualify as government. The defining feature of a government need not be subjugation, captured in the old folklore vocabulary of ‘serikali’, but rather in a new norm of service, ‘utumishi’. As we…
Marc Engel, Unilever East Africa Chief Executive is a happy man. As Unilever continues to ride the market, he believes new regional office located at the Water Mark Business Park in Karen can strengthen their business big time. But it is not really about the office. It is about the commitment to a deep passion for customers, be it wholesalers, dukas or the leading supermarkets, and giving everyone in the chain a chance to get the best. It is about the commitment to Kenya and the region. As a key way to ensure they have a world-class scape, he identifies…
By Dr Kellen Kiambati Emotional intelligence (EI) is the ability to understand and manage your own emotions, and those of the people around you. People with a high degree of emotional intelligence know what they are feeling, what their emotions mean, and how these emotions can affect other people. For leaders, having emotional intelligence is essential for success. After all, who is more likely to succeed – a leader who shouts at his team when he is under stress, or a leader who stay in control, and calmly assesses the situation? According to Daniel Goleman, an American psychologist who helped…
By Kenyatta Otieno There was a story online on the raging debate on who is the best between FC Barcelona’s Lionel Messi and Real Madrid’s Christiano Ronaldo. The writer reduced the debate to difference in choice when it comes to hiring; Ronaldo represents the hard working, focused, performing individual while Messi is the highly talented team player. Looking at football teams as organizations, one gets many similarities that can be drawn now that Human Resource Departments have become Talent Management Departments. The trend to have full fledged football academies gained prominence in the mid-eighties but most clubs had youth teams…
By Antony Mutunga The World Bank last December forecasted a rise in the Kenyan economy from 5.6% to 6% in 2016. Tourism, trade and infrastructure are identified as the important players that will attract more investors to our shores. Even though these are considered the main players to economic growth rate in 2016, one other important sector that is assisting in the economic growth is the informal sector. According to the International Labour Office (ILO), informal sector is all the economic activities by workers or economic units that are in law or practise and are not covered or sufficiently covered…
BY ROWAN BENN Focusing on the short-term impact of the new car import duties misses some key long-term benefits for our health and wealth. By harnessing the spending power of the wealthiest, we can improve the air we breathe, reduce serious accident injuries and in the long term the cars in the country’s car pool. Global car importing is becoming more accessible and this should be celebrated, not halted. The average car in Kenya is estimated to be 15 years old, making them costly to repair and lacking the latest safety features. Many have been scathing towards the change in…
People have been losing out to issues to do with the internet. Most of the victims are likely individuals, corporate companies or government bodies that are slow at upgrading software. It is no wonder that some vulnerabilities are caused by lack of public knowledge, such as not knowing that the termination of support for a browser can harm a computer. The top most common mistakes that leave people dismayed when it is already too late include; failing to enforce configuration, not enforcing password policies, not educating users, leaving network open to human error, and insecurely storing data. You can upgrade…
Getting accurate and up-to-date financial reports can be complex for small businesses, but it doesn’t have to be. Cloud-based reporting solutions offer small and large businesses a way to get timely snapshots of information, such as revenue or expenses year-on-year; top customers, products, salespeople; and more. This helps them to react faster and smarter to opportunities, threats, and trends in their businesses. Cloud-based reporting solutions are accessible, easy to use, and don’t require the support of an in-house IT department. Because they are online, SME managers and owners can simply log in from wherever they are, access their information, and start working.…