The NSE market has grown since its registration in 1954 under the Societies Act (1954) as a voluntary association of stockbrokers charged with the responsibility of developing the securities market and regulating trading activities, with the most recent developments being: The introduction of the Growth Enterprise Market Segment (GEMS) in 2013 with the intention of providing more options for SMEs finance, especially long-term funding, by use of favourable listing requirements tailored for SME’s. Currently the segment has five listed stocks, with four having listed by introduction, and one through cross listing; The introduction of NEXT, which is the Nairobi Securities…
Author: NBM CORRESPONDENT
BY GILBERT NG’ANG’A Kenya’s financial sector is set for an unsettling future arising from a new regulatory environment that has tightened the operating space. This is likely to test the versatility of the emerging financial technology (fintech) frontier that has been touted as the future of financial services. The Finance Act 2018 and the proposed Financial Conduct Bill, 2018 will redefine the financial services sector, forcing financial institutions and telcos to rethink their game to remain competitive, analysts say. The Nairobi Business Monthly takes a look into the future of the financial services sector under the new operating regime. The…
BY DAVID ONJILI It is self evident that Kenyans are currently going through tough economic times. Job losses, delayed salaries, higher taxes and escalated cost of living are the mare a majority has to put up with. This unprecedented cost of living has not been met by a resultant increase in basic salaries or minimum wages and thus it is time Kenyans really learnt to make do in these harsh times. Frugality must not be confused with being misers or cheap slates. It is time to assess your expenditure budgets with some magnifying glasses. Like any budget, the income and…
BY DR KELLEN KIAMBATI Today, more than ever before, we live in a world faced with enormous social challenges. Recently, the world marked one of the greatest milestones with seven billion people. Out of this total population, 1.8 billion are youth aged 10 to 24 with 90% of them living in developing countries. Research has shown that this generation is the most interconnected and the challenges they face are ever more daunting. It is important to deal with these challenges so that institutions can address them as they frame the stakes of youth policies and programmes. Political ideologies: Young people…
BY KOSTA KIOLEOGLOU Real estate market and a country’s economy are directly correlated and affect each other. For sustainable real estate growth to be achieved, a strong economic environment with positive economic data is required. Equally, real estate investments and prices are good measures for reflecting economic trends and serve as good predictors of economic growth. To see the future of a real estate market, one should start by looking into the country’s economic data. This helps to understand the potential growth or possible shrinkage of a market. Economic growth leads to an increase in affordability within the lower and…
BY VICTOR ADAR Whether or not ideas that become real businesses are rare to come by, there is a growing need to out think. More and more young entrepreneurs are grabbing the opportunity to get the much needed financing in various ways including participating in contests. With advancements on the way investors look for big ideas to fund, just be the best. Convincing an investor to invest in your business is an assurance that you are on the right path. KCB Lion’s Den, which is a panel of shrewd Kenyan business magnates who have the cash and the know-how of…
BY VICTOR ADAR A mobile technology specialist firm, Myriad Connect, has decried a growing problem of SIM swap fraud warning that the scam is now a global threat as many industry players across Africa continue to battle it. The company says that this fraud has plagued mobile users across Africa for years thanks to a recent survey in Kenya revealing that over 90% of Kenyan banking leaders see it as an issue for their organisations. Worse still, the percentage of people who had been victims of the digital crime stand at over 25, an indication of how bad things are to…
BY ANTONY MUTUNGA Africa is now among the fastest in the world in urbanisation. According to the World Bank, for instance, sub-Saharan Africa experienced an annual urban population growth rate of 4.1% as compared to the global rate of 2% in 2017. Businesses and governments have, consequently, started to recognize the role of technology, integrating it more into the economy with the emergence of different companies into the region such as Uber and Airbnb that rely on technology. The continent has however lagged in these fronts for many years. For example, sub-Saharan Africa is one of the regions whereby a…
BY NIKKI SUMMERS The pace of technology change is accelerating, creating exciting new opportunities for human resources (HR) leaders and departments in East Africa. I recently attended the Talent Agenda Series East Africa Conference in Nairobi, where I moderated a discussion focused on the fourth industrial revolution and how it influences African talent. One of the key insights is that HR is still largely rooted in the third industrial revolution, but now needs to get ready for the fourth industrial revolution. Here are some of the key trends we see unfolding in HR in the era of big data, the Internet of…
BY ANTONY MUTUNGA From 1973 when the first mobile phone was introduced to the world to now, mobile phones have seen a lot of transformation. The first mobile phone to make a call weighed 1.1kg, had 30 minutes talk time and would take up to 10 hours to charge. Over the years however, this has changed. First, they became smaller. Then the time they could take to charge tremendously reduced. Next was the Smartphone. This further improved the software and hardware of mobile phones turning them into mini computers that took only a short time to fully charge. Smartphones have…