Africa has a higher percentage of companies affected by fraud, theft, money laundering or other financial crimes than the global average, according to a comprehensive survey of international business. Thomson Reuters commissioned the survey of more than 2,300 senior business leaders in large companies to shine a light on how pervasive such crimes have become across the world. The report, Revealing the True Cost of Financial Crime, shows that 53% of people questioned in Africa, and 47% of respondents globally, admitted that their organisation had suffered at least one incident of financial crime over the past 12 months, with cybercrime…
Author: NBM CORRESPONDENT
In stark contrast to preceding quarters of decline, consumer sentiment in Kenya is on the rise in the latest Nielsen Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) results for Q1, 2018, having gained eight points to 102. Looking at the East African outlook, Nielsen East and South Africa MD Bryan Sun comments; “Consumers are feeling more upbeat in light of the political situation settling down, GDP strengthening and the country emerging out of a period of drought. The private sector also has a more positive outlook and the economy is opening up, with the entry of international retail chains in the country, bringing…
Payton Mathau Failure of a bank’s newly installed internal financial control system might have led to massive multi-million fraud paid by clients, which has been either untraceable or misappropriated. Pan African banking corporation, Eco bank, with operations in thirty six African countries, could have lost over five hundred million shillings following confusion that reigned after it undertook core banking system change in October 2010. The confusion that marred the changes to Flexicube and Chequepoint systems led to the bank to accumulating unclaimed funds amounting to over nine hundred million shillings, which were locked in its suspense accounts with no possibility…
Marking its 30th edition this year, the IMD World Competitiveness Rankings emphasize a long-term trend highlighted in past editions – that the countries on the top of the list each have a unique approach to becoming competitive. The top five most competitive economies in the world remain the same as in the previous year, but their order changes. The United States returns to the first spot, followed by Hong Kong, Singapore, the Netherlands and Switzerland. The United States improves three positions from last year while Hong Kong drops one spot and Singapore remains 3rd. The return of the United States…
BY KENYATTA OTIENO In December 2017, Kiambu County Assembly passed a Bill compelling all institutions in the county to employ 70% Kiambu residents. Before the by-law was passed, political leaders in Kiambu were reported pushing for the County Assembly to hire locally the heads of institutions of higher learning in the county. The motivation behind these sentiments and Bill is some kind of Kiambu nationalism based on hogging opportunities for locals even in universal institutions like universities. This attitude is a wrong interpretation of the spirit of Devolution. Uasin Gishu governor Jackson Mandago led a team a while back in…
BY SHADRACK MUYESU Considering the industries it sustains, isn’t it time information was considered a factor of production on its own? Take the law for instance. For many years, lawyers preyed on the ignorance of the layperson that was not able to access the information they needed because it exited in complex jargon only lawyers could interpret. A lawyer in his robe was a marvel. He was literally a depository of knowledge whose wisdom was necessary for completing the simplest of transactions and determining the smallest dispute. To amplify Lord Justice Denning, they were the law. Beyond determining the law,…
BY VICTOR ADAR Imagine your computer going off and you get into problems because you are unable to check out important emails. Or you have just called customer care to sort out some issues only to get disconnected simply because power went off. In many cases, this gets you into serious trouble. You could lose business. Power solutions company, Delta Electronics, is one of the pioneers trying to ensure all should go well regardless of power disruption. The energy-saving solutions provider with competencies in power electronics and innovative research and development whose business domains include power electronics, automation, and infrastructure…
BY MOHAMED AHMED It’s a grey Friday evening and you receive a cold call that your business is being discussed online. Instant reaction is “awesome”, but first things first. You need to ascertain whether the publicity being referred to is negative or positive. Expectedly, in this digital era where information reaches a big number in a few mouse clicks thanks to digital platforms like Google, and sharing buttons available on social media portals like Facebook and Twitter, you think twice. What if it is negative publicity that spread in split seconds? Although bad publicity is a real pain to businesses…
By Dustin Homer It’s well known in the logistics and supply chain game that the last mile of a shipment’s journey is inevitably the most expensive – possibly accounting for over 50% of total delivery costs, according to a 2016 report by McKinsey. Now imagine that last mile is in Africa. It may very well be a pot-holed dirt road, set in the middle of one of the continent’s many informal, low income areas, where even a ballpark guesstimate of consumer demand is incredibly hard to come by. Many companies are already pushing their products into these emerging markets, yet…
BY SAM CHAPPATTE E-commerce in Kenya has experienced rapid growth in recent years. This provides a unique growth opportunity for local businesses and in turn to create employment and support the government’s Big Four Agenda. We expect e-commerce sales to grow 10x in value terms over the next four to five years (vs 2017). This may sound aggressive, but it’s based on a conservative benchmark of how the industry has evolved in other parts of the world. Today, only 0.5% of retail takes place online in Kenya. Compare this to 23% in China, 17% in the UK, 8% in the…