Author: Victor Adar

Automobile Association (AA) of Kenya has embarked on a 3-month road safety campaign that seeks to raise motorists’ awareness about pedestrians visibility on the road. Dubbed “I see you”, the campaign runs till December 2021 and targets to furnish over 20,000 school children across the 47 counties with reflective bands. It also aims at driving mutual respect between motorists and pedestrians on the road. Chief Executive Officer Francis Theuri said this is part of a global campaign by the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, known as the FIA, which AA Kenya is a member of. “We seek to raise awareness on pedestrian visibility…

Financial services provider, Apex Group, has appointed Launch Africa Ventures, a Pan-African venture capital fund, to address the funding gap that many early-stage, technology-driven startups grapple with. The company picked Apex to support the growth of its current and future funds by providing fund administration and accounting, fiduciary and investor reporting as well as tax compliance services. “We believe in implementing a frictionless and efficient investment process and the administration of our funds is no different. We invest in a few startups each quarter, providing the advice and support to allow their founders to focus on their entrepreneurial pursuits,” co-founders…

Lifestyle apparel chain stores, Mavazi Lifestyle Clothing, have opened the “Mavazi For-You Mega Store” located along Pandit Nehru Road in Nakuru, in response to customer demand. Operations manager Florence Mukuha said customers at the new store will get discounts of up to 20% on selected international and local lifestyle clothing items, footwear, babywear and related accessories. Ms Mukuha noted that the retailer has actively embraced the “aggregator business model” to speed up and sustain its growth. Unlike in the traditional retail model, aggregator suppliers provide sales items on a consignment basis with the products and payments remaining in control of…

Personally, I’ve had some instances where I had to be extra aggressive – ‘almost masculine’ – to get my way – Leah Nduati By Victor Adar Offering consultancy services in a foreign country, especially amid a pandemic and tough business environment, is no mean feat. Leah Nduati, who has been in Ghana for nearly 12 years, working with Growth Africa as a growth catalyst, knows this too well. Ms. Nduati’s position involves offering advisory services to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) at the growth stage. Her role is essentially about helping small players scale their businesses and also get them…

The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) has endorsed the Regional Women’s Land Rights Agenda in a bid to curb the challenges of gender equality on land from a regional perspective. This will support the implementation of the “AU Declaration on Land Issues and Challenges in Africa toward The Africa We Want and Leaving No One Behind”, which is a framework document that will enable the IGAD Secretariat to provide support to Member States in implementing gender and land projects for the next 10 years. The bottom line is that, seven member countries that include Kenya, Uganda, Sudan, South Sudan, Djibouti, Somalia and Ethiopia will now…

Riruta Health Centre, a public health facility in Nairobi County, has received a donation of 12 hospital ward beds, Sh500,000 and personal protective equipment kits for health workers in the facility thanks to Sportpesa Foundation. The Sh 500,000 is to equip the maternity unit’s kitchen. The donation whose total value is Sh1.3mn, comes after the Nairobi Metropolitan Service completed the building of a maternal wing to enable the facility to provide not only full maternal but also 24-hour services. “This donation, to us, is God-sent and will have a huge impact to the large community that we serve,” said Sister…

Much has been written about the importance of advancing digital literacy on the African continent, especially among its younger citizens. But more often than not, mobilising and inspiring the youthful population to be active participants of the global digital economy is proving to be the continent’s challenge. For Soliyana Gizaw Hunde, ten-year-old coder and winner of the SAP Africa’s inaugural AfriCANCode Challenge, a love of maths and science and a strong community spirit inspired her to develop an educational game dubbed “Mathstainment” to create awareness about COVID-19 while offering a simple and fun way to practice maths. Mathstainment asks a…

Ekraal Hub, H-Pass businesses, Step-Hear Ltd and Personal Watchguard are the winners of the Konza innovation challenge 2021 planned by the Konza Technopolis Development Authority (KoTDA) and Embassy of Israel in Kenya. The four start-ups will provide solutions in their respective fields to the residents and investors in the techno city. While Personal Watchguard, Ekraal Hub and H-Pass businesses are Kenyan based, Step-Hear Ltd is from Israel. “This is exciting and historic moment in the sector as we are accelerating development by having homegrown solutions to deal with our challenges. As a government, we are glad that these innovations will…

BY VICTOR ADAR There are a million and one cases where corporate companies, individuals or political parties would send unsolicited information to a particular target group. In fact, it is a common phenomenon to be met with messages like, “don’t miss out on the next promotion”, “this week it is bigger and better”, “sign up by mid-night and we will reward you”, or “please reply with one to vote for xyz”. Peoples’ personal details have always landed in wrong hands. Will the pressing issue of data safety ever be solved? What’s the impact of the data you are collecting? Is…

BY VICTOR ADAR It is not easy being a real estate developer especially now that Covid-19 pandemic has a bearing on businesses, countries and families. For months, business environment has been tough and making the big dollar a tall order for many investors. Ensuring business continuity has meant that innovation and out of the box ideas are embraced. “We now want to move to counties,” says Shiv Arora, Superior Homes CEO. “There we see a huge opportunity in developing what we would call middle income housing but not apartments. We are delivering a unit at between Sh6m to Sh10m in…