BY YOMI KAZEEM News of Jumia’s filing to go public on the New York Stock Exchange last month is stirring questions about what defines a startup as African. While the company runs the largest e-commerce business across Africa with operations in 14 countries including Nigeria, Kenya, Morocco and Egypt, it is incorporated in Germany, has its headquarters in Dubai with its central tech team based in Portugal, and as its IPO filing shows, will be listed in New York. Being a “German stock corporation” probably means it will pay the majority of its corporate taxes in Germany, but its subsidiaries will also pay local…
Author: NBM CORRESPONDENT
BY ANTONY MUTUNGA Not long ago, Africa’s online space was empty and the retail sector limited. Fast-forward to the present and this has all changed. E-commerce has become quite popular. This has seen the likes of Jumia, which was launched in Nigeria in 2012 grow into a billion dollar company. In 2016, the company became Africa’s first unicorn after it was valued over Sh101 billion ($1 billion). In April 2019, the start-up listed in the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). This saw the e-commerce dubbed the first African start-up to join the NYSE. According to Ernest Eguasa, Jumia chief financial…
BY EMEKA-MAYAKA GEKARA Everlyn Namukhula should be alive to take care of her nine children. The woman who gave birth to quintuples in March died a month later. Namukhula gave birth to quintuplets at Kakamega County Referral Hospital on March 12. She was transferred to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital Eldoret, three days later after two of the children developed breathing complications. The two kids died, leaving behind three. Doctors had said the children needed to undergo what is known as Zipap in medical terms, which is the improvement of oxygen circulation in their bodies. Their mother who made…
BY GAD WESONGA To a resounding relieve for farmers in Kenya, the drought that was ravaging and scorching the country came to end during Easter celebrations. This erased the gloom that had engulfed the nation after the dreadful announcement by the weatherman that Kenyan rain was stuck in Tanzania. The farmer’s despondency on planting is now temporarily suspended but the anxiety over the controversial draft proposal on crop and dairy production prevails. A journey through the proposed regulations draws emotive and mixed reactions. For Gerald Odamong, a Busia County-based farmer of many decades, this is agrarian aggression. “What are the…
BY SHADRACK MUYESU Regulation 30 of the Food (Food crops) Regulations 2018 prohibits a grower from using human faecal matter and raw animal manure for the production of food crops. It is a curious provision. The Ministry of Agriculture says that the regulations are aimed at addressing the various challenges in the food crops industry thereby boosting food security and enabling President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Big Four Agenda. An alternative view is that far from achieving this aim, the regulations not only cripple the small farmer; they threaten food security in the long term and come at a great cost to…
BY VICTOR ADAR When a financial services provider, UAP Holdings Limited (UAPHL), reported its full year financial results for 2018 at a recent investor briefing, the mood and character of those who were in the room was mixed. The firm recorded a loss of Sh518 million, which is a dip from Sh608 million profits before tax that it recorded the previous year. At the centre of the deterioration in financial results include unrealized losses in the equity portfolio, property valuation write-downs mainly in the South Sudan portfolio, credit loss impairments, the adoption of international accounting standard (popular as IFRS 9)…
BY David Onjili In the end, it is a business venture. Irrespective of how an individual ascended to the highest management level, the owner expects positive returns on his investments. This is the duty of any manager, to ensure that you maximize on utility. Leadership within organizations takes different models. In certain instances, the company may decide to promote one of the staff into a senior position or entirely hire a new individual. When an internal member of staff ascends into such a position, often times they are insiders and comprehend the politics within the organization. Yet, as often the…
Kenyan farmers will soon have their own market where they sell produce directly to consumers, cutting off the traditional value chain that is replete with middlemen. The Nairobi Farmers Market, which is under construction in the upmarket Runda Estate, will contain 45 stalls that are exclusively operated by farmers. This borrows from international practice where most cities have farmers markets that supply produce direct from the farms to the consumers. While some provide temporary selling space for different farmers on a day-to-day basis, others lease out permanent shops that are operated by individual farmers who take the space on a…
By Philip Mainga Rail is the future of transport. In recent years, countries have turned to it to address some of the problems threatening their transport systems. Increasingly, we desire trains that are fast, reliable, energy efficient and able to cope with the increasing demand on infrastructure. We are looking to rail to deliver new innovations and make more efficient use of our existing and future infrastructure. From our own trends, we can predict that we will make more progress in the railway sector over the next two decades than we have in the last 100 years. New technologies and…
BY DAVID ONJILI The aviation industry, considered the safest mode of transport due to the few incidences of accidents has recently had its fair share of tragic events in late 2018 and early 2019. Specifically, the Ethiopian Airways (ET) flight 302 and Lion Air of Indonesia crash that led to a loss of 346 lives directs the spotlight to Boeing and specifically their upgraded single-aisle 737 Max planes. “I can assure you the 737 Max will be back in the air soon. They will find a solution to the ‘problem’, issue an AD, (A compulsory Airworthiness Directive detailing a modification/improvement…