When Family Bank announced that its CEO, Peter Munyiri, is set to exit in June after a five-year stint, successes he achieved during his tenure came to light. The forward looking man truly ignited growth at the bank building from the micro-finance model that the former boss (Peter Kinyajui) embraced – focusing majorly on small and medium enterprise lending as well as personal loans. Mr Munyiri is rearing to relinquish the top position as the bank now embarks on the process of getting a successor. He will continue serving until the right man to take his slot is found, and…
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Financial Sector Deepening Africa (FSD) has signed a Sh116.72 million grant agreement with Strathmore Business School–(SBS) to develop and deliver training to over1000 senior and mid-level executives in the financial sector in Tanzania, Rwanda and Uganda. This grant will support the expansion of the programme into Tanzania and Rwanda until the end of 2018. It will essentially be used to develop faculty, course material, case studies and limited scholarships to pioneering financial institutions for the programmes. Since 2013, SBS has trained over 200 senior and middle level managers in Uganda under the Uganda Leadership Development Academy. The expansion of these…
Local Internet Service Providers are set to benefit from increased reach and enhanced capacity thanks to a partnership between SEACOM and network provider Ciena. Both companies will deliver new network solutions 100G upgrade to service providers across the continent and into main European points of presence (POPs) through key submarine links. “Africa is experiencing massive growth and demand for network services. With Ciena’s technology supporting our infrastructure evolution we can ensure cost-effective data connectivity to end-customers across the continent and internationally ensuring that Africa is ready for the next generation of applications and high-bandwidth broadband services,” said SEACOM chief technology officer Claes Segelberg. SEACOM’s submarine and terrestrial…
BY VICTOR ADAR After ten years of Telco jobs, Sandra Hua Yao is in to change the face of banking at a time when players in the sector are going crazy about new ways of providing services. Currently the director of new business development at National Bank of Kenya – her key tasks involves growing the Chinese business and lead innovation while advancing digital strategies. Ms Yao, 31, has played a central role in leading the creation of the new department thus making bigger contribution in National Bank’s bottom-line. It is second after Equity bank, in capturing this niche market.…
With businesses becoming more international every year, we have started experiencing a phenomenon of business travelers moving for conferences, not only within the country but very often internationally. This phenomenon, called conference tourism, is quickly becoming a huge part of business. Conference tourism revolves around service provision to business travelers attending seminars, workshops, conferences and conventions. It is the largest and fastest growing segment of the modern tourism sector. It has a higher financial impact because business travelers spend more than their leisure counterparts. Often, their expenses are paid by the organisations they represent, leaving the tourists with substantial disposable…
Kenya’s food will soon exhibit in India. The Indian High Commissioner to Kenya, Ms Suchitra Durai has promised to organize a buyer seller meet for Kenya food products in India to strengthen the friendship between the two countries. Ms Durai was speaking at a buyer seller meet for Indian food products at Intercontinental Hotel, Nairobi last month. The expo was organized by Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), which looked to create a more close relationship between Kenya and India by introducing some Indian products to the Kenyan market, and the Indian High Commission to Kenya. It…
WORLD GDP is forecast to grow by 2.7% in 2016, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit (in 2015 the economy is estimated to have expanded by 2.4%). This moderate outlook reflects the fact growth is still lacklustre in the euro area, Japan and emerging market economies as a whole. The picture is particularly gloomy for commodity-exporting nations such as Venezuela, which is in deep economic recession. The outlook for Brazil is far from positive too, where falling oil prices combined with the implications of the Petrobras scandal will affect investment in oil and gas. War-torn countries also feature in the…
By David Wanjala December 2015 saw the Excise Duty Act approved and adopted to become a law. It got a little bit difficult for people who wanted to buy their first cars. And so in the spirit of business the importers pass the cost on to customers, bringing an issue that is all about high cost of importing a vehicle. From July to November last year, car imports reduced by half as players adopted a wait and see attitude. Back then figures from Car Importers Association of Kenya indicated that monthly imports dropped from an average of 12,000 units to…
Kosta Kioleoglou For many people, buy-to-let looks an attractive income investment but if you are considering investing in property – or improving your returns on a buy-to-let that you already own – it’s important to do things right. People buy property for different reasons. Those who want to create a steady income and build wealth are focused to “Buy to Let “opportunities. There are some basic steps that every investor has to follow in order to move towards the right direction and manage to get profits. The steps to buying rental property, however, are not that drastically different from buying…
BY BENARD AYIEKO Kenya has a robust financial sector in Africa. In fact, last year the World Bank Country Director for Kenya Mr. Diariétou Gaye said that Kenya has the third largest financial sector in sub-Saharan Africa that makes a significant contribution to economic growth and job creation. To acknowledge efforts being put in place to make the financial sector flourish, the World Bank Group approved a $37million in form of International Development Association credit to strengthen the legal, regulatory and institutional environment of Kenya’s financial sector. Main players in Kenya’s financial sector are the commercial banks, non-bank financial institutions,…