Azur Drones, the French pioneer in civil professional UAVs, has carried out a fourth fund-raising exercise of €3.5 million. It has now raised more than €10 million in funds over the last 12 months and, with Skeyetech, completes its third defining acquisition in nine months. The company is the French leader in UAV video-protection solutions with its Drones’Guard offer, and is being deployed internationally. This Bordeaux gem, comprising 15 high-level engineers, has developed a system of standalone UAVs designed to secure industrial sites. The UAVs take off automatically when sensors detect possible intrusions, then carry out crosschecks to confirm and characterise…
Author: NBM CORRESPONDENT
The Kenya Private School Association (KPSA) recently came into an agreement with the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) in a Sh60 billion deal that will see the latter provide digital learning devices to several private primary schools. In the deal, JKUAT will be expected to manufacture about four million devices in the next three years at the fixed price of Sh15, 000 per device. The association then plans on distributing the devices countrywide to over 11, 000 private schools, which will ensure that more than 1.8million students benefit from the project. The deal will now incorporate the…
Things are about to get much tougher for Kenyans as towards the end of last month the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) released the monthly maximum retail pump prices, showing that the prices of super petrol, kerosene and diesel would go up in the October-November period. Motorists in the capital city will now have to part with Sh3.37 more for a litre of super petrol, Sh1.85 more for a litre of diesel and Sh1.82 more for kerosene. According to the Energy Regulatory Commission Ag. director general, Robert Pavel Oimeke, the changes in prices is as a result of the average landed…
Naivas supermarket, one of the largest supermarket chains in Kenya, in partnership with Africa’s leading payment solutions provider, Interswitch Limited has launched its Digital Retail Strategy by rolling out its own payment network, Naivas Pay. The supermarket first introduced the service to its customers in its outlets in Westlands and Kiambu Rd. The payment network will enable customers to pay via several channels such as mobile, Internet or cards, which are connected to their bank accounts. This will be advantageous to the merchants who will not have to rely on the traditional point of sale devices anymore. In addition, it…
By David Wanjala In the past few months, Kenya has experienced one of its longest electioneering periods that has seen the economy almost come to a complete standstill. Since August 8, a lot has happened in the country, from the presidential elections being nullified by the Supreme Court to demonstrations happening all over the country. In the midst of all these activities, a number of people ended up losing their lives in the fracas while many others incurred injuries. In addition to these fatalities, the economy also took a heavy blow as many businesses all over the country recorded few…
BY Luke Mulunda To cap or not to cap interest rates? That’s the million-dollar question whose answer depends on where you sit during working hours. Bankers, including the Central Bank of Kenya, for obvious reasons, want the law regulating interest rates repealed. On the other hand, borrowers who include businesses as well as consumer lobbies feel a return to a free market model in the pricing of loans will be punitive. Clearly, the debate on interest rates has become very emotive, and inadvertently betrayed the capitalistic interests behind the renewed push to give banks a free hand in determining the…
Advances in technology and changing trade patterns are affecting opportunities for export-led manufacturing. Smart automation, advanced robotics and 3-D printing are new factors influencing which locations are attractive for production. While these shifts threaten significant disruptions in future employment, particularly for low-skilled workers, they also offer opportunities, according to a new report released last month by the World Bank Group. The report, Trouble in the Making? The Future of Manufacturing-Led Development, underscores the resulting changes in the manufacturing sector’s ability to create jobs and lift people out of poverty in developing countries. It encourages policymakers to adjust their approach to spurring…
By Kosta Kioleoglou House prices increased by 2.08% during the first half of 2017, according to the latest House Price Index for the second quarter 2017, released last July by the Kenya Bankers Association. This is the result of a downward market trend that started a couple of years ago. The second quarter of 2017 saw the slowest price increase since the third quarter of 2016. While several people read these numbers as a sense of overall price stability, the actual trend over the past four quarters points to the underlying demand and supply characteristics. In particular, it depicts a…
BY ANTONY MUTUNGA Time and again, natural disasters have continued to be a thorn in the flesh humanity, proving the fact that we are truly all subject to Mother Nature. As time goes by, climate change has continued to take place causing natural disasters to increase all over the world. According to the World Bank, these incidents have managed to increase by 30% since the 1960s. Over the years some of the natural disasters that occurred have been so devastating that they have managed to change the planet in one way or another. In 2011, for instance, Japan was hit…
Considering that stretched elections are now a permanent fixture of our Constitution and the fact that the political deadlock Kenya is now witnessing could see the exercise stretch beyond the 60 day period for a repeat exercise contemplated under the Constitution, SHADRACK MUYESU indulges Anzetse Were, Kosta Kioleoglou and Antony Mutunga on what this portends for the economy and some guidance on the way forward. Ms Were is a development economist and a researcher with over ten years of experience working in Africa on development economics, Impact Investment and Enterprise Development. Mr. Kioleoglou is a civil engineer, an expert real…