The talk in town has already shifted from the impact on economy of the controversial Finance Act 2018 that has hardened life for Kenyans following heightened inflation after 16% VAT was slapped on essential commodities and services, to a referendum on the 2010 Constitution. Has the public already resigned to the fate of increased cost of living as the new norm, or are the people lying in waiting to use the referendum to amend some economic anomalies? The high cost on fuel products and banking and communication services among other essential sectors has brought untold suffering to the masses. The…
Author: NBM CORRESPONDENT
A head of its maiden African Investment Forum early this month, the African Development Bank continues to see another year of sustained indicators, underlined by a stellar Triple A rating by all three major agencies and sharply increased earnings. The inaugural Forum takes place 7-9 November 2018 in Johannesburg, South Africa, offering a platform for sourcing funding for bankable African projects, brokering infrastructure deals and providing innovative financial solutions. The event will attract key global companies, financial players, and public officials who will address the continent’s critical infrastructure investment gaps. The Bank’s performance and ratings are based on the solid support…
LafargeHolcim, the leading global building products & solutions company, which was born of the merger between Lafarge and Holcim in 2015, has begun the roll out of specialized one-stop building material stores in Kenya. The Swiss multinational company has opened up four outlets in Nairobi, Machakos and Kiambu counties. The stores, which are to be operated under the brand name, Binastore, will serve the needs of end-consumers, self-builders, masons and small contractors selling a broad range of building materials including Bamburi Cement products and solutions as well as a variety of other construction materials from partner suppliers. Some of the…
The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) has officially been admitted to the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) at the 58th General Assembly in Athens. This was after the bourse was approved as a full member during the WFE’s January 2018 board meeting. The NSE was among five other new members; Tunis Stock Exchange, China Securities Depository and Clearing Corporation (CSDC), London Stock Exchange Group, Multi Commodity Exchange of India (MCX) and the Boursa Kuwait, that saw the number of full members in the global industry association, grow to 70. According to Nandini Sukumar, CEO of WFE, members are the lifeblood of…
Five hundred people are set to be rendered jobless in coming months at Telkom, Kenya’s third largest mobile phone services operator by market share. This is after the telco issued a thirty-day notice to relevant authorities and company stakeholders on October 26 informing them of what the company describes as an intended workforce-restructuring exercise. In the statutory notification to the Ministry of Labour, Telkom Kenya indicated that it is considering declaring the employees redundant to enable it invest more into the growth and sustainability of its business “The company must align its cost structure and skill-set with its Strategy. This…
BY SIMON ATEBA When a major contract between DP World Limited and the Republic of Djibouti was signed, everyone seemed to be happy and satisfied with the business deal. Both sides pledged to respect the terms of the agreement, and it seemed back then, that Djibouti, a tiny but important country in the Horn of Africa, was trying to inject more professionalism and trust in the way it was building its infrastructure and conducting business with the world. Under the terms of the contract, Djibouti granted DP World exclusive rights over port and free zone facilities, including container-handling facilities. DP World…
USAID, an American development agency, has signed Sh940m loan portfolio guarantee agreement with Musoni Microfinance, a Nairobi based credit micro-lender. The agreement will allow the microfinance to develop and roll out innovative financial loan products to increase access to credit within Kenya’s agricultural sector, especially within cereals, dairy, livestock and horticulture value chains. The group to benefit from this include individuals, associations, small-scale farmers, cooperatives and micro, small and medium enterprises. According to Stanley Munyao, Musoni Microfinance Chief Executive, this facility will help them to provide smallholder farmers with quality inputs, market linkages, infrastructure and other auxiliary services. On the…
Kenyans are finally starting to feel the pinch of the Finance Act 2018 as Safaricom, the dominating service provider in the country, has eventually passed on the burden of the revised excise duty to its customers by increasing its voice, SMS and data prices. As a result of the new law, Safaricom increased its voice calls and data prices by 30 cents while the SMS price was increased by 10 cents. “We wish to notify our customers that from the midnight of 18th October 2018, our headline price for voice calls and data will increase by 30 cents and SMS…
Equitel has recorded double-digit growth in both the value and number of mobile money commerce transactions as per latest data from the Communications Authority of Kenya. Launched in July 2015, the Equity Bank subsidiary now accounts for close to 22% of the Sh1.919 trillion that was moved in the economy through mobile money services in the third quarter of 2018. While subscription base as at June 2018 was 1.95 million, Equitel processed 87.9 million mobile commerce transactions between April 2018 and June 2018, up from 77.6 million transactions in the preceding quarter, representing a 13% increase. At the same time…
KenGen has ended a two-year dry spell to declare a dividend of Sh0.40 per share for the financial year ending June 30, 2018. Profit Before Tax improved by 2% to Sh11.75b from Sh11.46b realising over a similar period last year attributable to increased generation revenue and steam sales. Profit After Tax reduced by 12% to Sh7.89 billion from Sh9 billion in 2017. During the year under review, the company commissioned the Olkaria 280MW realising capital allowance for which tax credits were realised in the last financial year. Tax expense for the year was Sh3.855 billion compared to Sh2.455 billion the…