BY KOSTA KIOLEOGLOU Many people argue about the efficiency of the Kenyan real estate market with many questions being raised on the same. It is important to understand what an efficient market is and its main characteristics. An efficient market should provide knowledge and information that would minimize the risk to investors allowing them to make rational decisions on up to date information. It also includes a time dimension, related to the need to assess the adaptability of property market process as economic and social conditions change. In such a market, there are many participants, many buyers and sellers as…
Author: NBM CORRESPONDENT
BY ANTONY MUTUNGA The year 2017 was a difficult one for Kenya. We faced many obstacles to growth among them a prolonged and bruising electioneering period which saw almost everything in the country get affected. The most affected part was our economy as perceived by several international agencies that as a result, they brought down their growth projection for the country. The World Bank downgraded their earlier projection of 5.5% to 4.9% while the International Monetary Fund (IMF) changed its earlier projection from 5.3% to 5.0%. However, not all agencies believed that the prolonged electioneering period was the main reason…
BY DAVID ONJILI Any investor’s aim is to make the most of returns while in the meantime cushioning themselves against risks, most notably losses, and the peace of mind that your investments are diversified. The reasoning behind diversification is that different industries will respond differently to the same event. Take a strike notice by pilots as an example; such notice will shake stocks that are allied to the aviation industry while those in the mining, banking and other sectors may be spared. It is such eventualities that a sharp investor seeks not to fall a victim of. While diversification is…
With African tech hubs, startups and founders starting to mature and gain deeper understanding of local markets after a few years of heady hype that was more about potential than substance, investors increasingly look towards the continent. Partech Ventures’ latest annual funding report shows that venture capital funding in 2017 reached $560 million, recording 53% year on year growth. The scale of growth in funding is seen in the number of investment rounds participated in by startups: in 2017, 124 startups participated in 128 funding rounds compared to 77 rounds in 2016. Partech’s reports include startups that have a primary market…
Kenya’s shilling weakened the most in more than six months mid last month, as warning signs started to flash for a currency that has, until now, been resilient in the face of a political crisis that shows little sign of abating. The currency of East Africa’s biggest economy has climbed 2.1% this year, reaching its strongest level since June 2016 and posting five straight weeks of gains even as a basket of emerging-market currencies declined amid a global stocks selloff. The shilling fell 0.3% by 1:26 p.m. February 19 in Nairobi to 101.10 per dollar. That rise had sent the dollar’s…
BY ELSIE OYOO You are bound to come across contracts in most of the deals you enter as a businessperson. Developing a basic understanding of how contracts work will help you to tell whether a given contract correctly captures the commercial transaction you have negotiated, even before your lawyer gives it a more in-depth look. In addition, knowing what to look out for in contracts enables you to hold your lawyer to account and ask him/her the right questions. Always look out for the following: Description of the parties Does the contract correctly describe the persons it covers? The description…
BY KENYATTA OTIENO Towards the end of January 2018, Rwanda strongman Paul Kagame, at his inauguration as the new African Union chairman, announced the creation of AU single aviation market. That was good news to my Pan Africanist ears. When people connect, new things happen first in the social sphere to build trust then economic ideas come up the moment people ask “what next?” In 2015, Tanzania pulled the plug on its trade relations with Kenya by reducing the number of flights Kenya Airways can make to Dar-es-Salaam per week from 42 to 14. This came after Kenya’s Ministry of…
BY BARNABAS ONYONKA If you were to count the gains banking has made from technology on your palms, you will run out of fingers. The great technological advancements that have occurred in the past decade or so have entirely revolutionized banking. Mobile banking has transformed banking from a 9am- 4pm thing to a round-the-clock activity. Rare is the day you would have to wait in line for ages to be served. The usual long queues at the banks are getting shorter by the day and will soon become extinct. Thanks to technology, knowing an individual’s credit status has never been…
When over 3,900 students many of whom are already putting their new skills to use in career-launching jobs celebrated their graduation from Generation Kenya last month, it was evident that equipping young people with practical skills for the labour market is crucial. Generation Kenya, a not-for-profit organization, recruits, trains, and connects young people who are unemployed or underemployed with jobs – and mainly provides employers with the entry-level talent they need. The ceremony held last month at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre celebrated the sixth group of students to graduate from the Generation Kenya, a programme that works closely with…
BY ANTONY MUTUNGA Over the years the Kenyan government has been working on merging some of its state corporations but time and time again this has hit a wall. In 2008 the Cabinet had approved the merging of struggling state influenced banks; Consolidated Bank, National Bank (NBK), and Development Bank. However, this move ended up being dragged on for so long that the government has now moved from the idea of merging to restructuring the banks by using experts. In 2013 the idea resurfaced after the report of The Presidential Taskforce on Parastatal Reforms, which was presented to the President,…