Digital solutions have proven essential allowing clients to access their funds especially now that clients are practicing social distance and quarantine measures Over the past decade, Kenya has transformed into a technology epicenter largely propelled by financial technology (Fintech). This wave has been supported by various success stories such as M-PESA, which disrupted the mobile money transfer space globally. How has fintech been affected by the spread of the coronavirus and how important is the industry to the general public? The agility of Kenya’s mobile banking system has created opportunities for digital entrepreneurs. The penetration of mobile telephony and receptiveness…
Author: NBM CORRESPONDENT
BY VICTOR ADAR Starting out as a photographer in 1980 and with no one to guide him on the path to take, the future wasn’t bright enough. But today James Stuart, 60, who also wanted to become a pilot growing up, slowly rediscovered his true north and passion and is now helping companies position their brands. From a perception point of view, photography is not a career but simply an art. In the battle, Mr Stuart studied Sociologyat the University of Bath, UK. He would spend his early career working for advertising agencies in London, a totally different field, before…
BY VICTOR ADAR You cannot help being drawn to Elina Residences. The developer, Purple Dot International Ltd has launched the residential project that is expected to deliver quality houses for upper mid-income homebuyers around Nairobi and its peripheries. Its soon-to-be completed project, located along Mandera Road in Kileleshwa, comprises of 66 all en-suite three-bedroom apartments and four duplex pent houses. The company’s general manager Jiten Kerai says most of the apartments were bought off plan, with customers buying the units before construction began in earnest in 2019 based on finishes delivered in their previous residential projects. The off-plan purchase price…
Rarely are opportunities presented to you in the perfect way, in a nice little box with a yellow bow on top. Good opportunities are messy and confusing and hard to recognize. They’re risky. They challenge you — Susan Wojcicki, CEO YouTube The world is facing unprecedented times occasioned by the prevailing Pandemic and we have seen Governments and businesses putting in place various measures to ensure continuity of the economies and businesses. The role of government is always to ensure that they provide the requisite operational environment for businesses and individuals to thrive. It is, therefore, the role of the…
Understand the inevitability of retirement, the importance of retirement planning and what power of choice you have as an investor, and make a sound decision that ensures you enjoy the sunset years of your life. BY DAVID WANJALA The pensions industry refers to the economic sector comprising of retirement benefits schemes, the assets these schemes control and relevant regulations affecting the schemes’ operations. The industry has witnessed significant growth with the number of registered members increasing from 0.7m and assets under management worth Sh0.42tn in 2010 to 3m members and assets worth Sh1.32tn as of December 2019, according to the…
BY VICTOR ADAR In the age of coronavirus pandemic, the Government, non-governmental organizations and private employers should raise the bar to ensure that workers are able to save enough for retirement. Sadly, how do you deal with a situation that has left the two parties, employee and employer, facing hell? Anything that happens during this era, or doesn’t happen, is a story for another day – jobs or no jobs, companies going down, and broken families. Saving money is not a priority at the moment. Perhaps a different approach, and one that gives you control is what could work…
Across the economy, employers have suspended a total of Sh2.1b in contributions to pension schemes since March as companies took advantage of the authorized payment holiday to maintain their cash flows BY GILBERT NG’ANG’A State pensioner National Social Security Fund (NSSF), which is smarting from a series of historic financial scandals, faces a dicey future as the COVID-19 pandemic pulls millions of Kenyans out of income, denying them a chance to save for their retirement. Over one million Kenyans have reportedly been laid off, suspended from work or left with no gainful employment as the healthcare crisis snowballs into one…
BY JACOB OKETCH A group of politicians from Western region were involved in a scuffle with the police who were at their gathering to disperse a crowd that had apparently contravened the guidelines for containing the Covid-19 pandemic. What baffled me about that encounter is that the Mumias East MP Hon Benjamin Washiali accosted a senior police officer whom he blamed for persecuting them yet they were doing the bidding of his fellow tribesman, the Deputy President William Ruto. To him, it did not matter that they were contravening the law, as long as the one in charge was tribally affiliated…
By Gilbert Muyumbu In understanding how the LSK attempted to restrain the Jomo Kenyatta regime from excesses, it requires clarity in two main areas. First, we need to understand the general state of rule of law under the Kenyatta rule, and second, we need to interrogate Kenyatta government’s attitude towards systematic oversight and restraint, which come through both horizontal and vertical accountability, by tracing the relationship the government built with institutions emerging out of these two types of accountability. Establishing facts in these two areas would provide a useful background from which to explain how LSK faired in its attempts…
The subject is law. After eight years of legal practice, one of those as Managing Partner at G.M. Gamma Advocates LLP, Gad Ouma’s litigation presence is lithe and assured. He represents a diverse portfolio of corporate clients, personalities and state corporations, including Kenya Power – he successfully navigated a class-action suit for the latter. Establishing the firm in July 2019 as a limited liability partnership based in Nairobi, he and his partners quickly realized that the Firm had grown exponentially with clients across the various regions in the country and, with just months into their operation, established the Mombasa Branch…