Kenya’s public debt has crossed the Sh5 trillion mark ($50bn), meaning that every Kenyan now owes the lending institutions at least Sh110,000. Although Treasury documents tabled in the National Assembly put the debt at Sh4.9 trillion as at June 2017, by February this year, the country had borrowed another Sh220 billion largely for infrastructure development […]
Category: East Africa News
Kenya’s 2018/19 budget good for textile and steel
Cotton growers, textile manufacturers and steel makers could turn out to be some of the biggest beneficiaries of this year’s budget. But there are caveats. First, the county governments will have to assist farmers with inputs, training and developing linkages with cooking oil processors and textile firms to guarantee markets and prices. Secondly, the relevant […]
Safaricom’s digifarm opens four farmers’ depot in Meru County
Safaricom in partnership with iProcure, FarmDrive and Arifu have opened four Digifarm depots in Meru County. Located in Laare, Nkubu, Mikindori and Meru Town, the four depots will offer quality, affordable inputs to farmers from Meru County. Since October 2017, more than 105,000 farmers from the county have signed up for the Digifarm service. “Digifarm […]
National Bank CEO gets Sh48m ($480k) pay
National Bank of Kenya (NBK) chief executive Wilfred Musau. file photo | nmg National Bank of Kenya’s chief executive Wilfred Musau earned a total of Sh48 million in the year ended December, representing an 80 per cent pay rise from his previous position as the lender’s director of retail banking. Mr Musau was paid Sh26.8 […]
Kenya’s Coffee Exchange: Auctioning Coffees at Origin
Auctioning is perhaps one of the most convoluted and least efficient ways to complete a coffee transaction. It also happens to be one of the very first means used for trading green coffee. It persists today as the primary method for purchasing coffees from nations such as Kenya and Tanzania, and it maintains an important […]
Safaricom Staff Pension Fund eyes Private Equity deals
Private equity investments, which are long term like real estate, will also offer attractive and stable returns for the over 5,000 members of the scheme, according to Chairman Joseph Ogutu./FILE Private equity investments, which are long term like real estate, will also offer attractive and stable returns for the over 5,000 members of the scheme, […]
Safaricom deepens interest in social media, e-commerce
Safaricom is looking to leverage the integration of social media and mobile money with e-commerce to increase its market share. The telco recently launched its own e-commerce platform, Masoko, which also features the M-Pesa mobile money service as the main payment method. Safaricom has also integrated with local banks enabling users to transact using the […]
East African states opt for one bank account to increase transparency
East African Community partner states have agreed to close down multiple bank accounts operated by their ministries, departments and agencies and keep their revenues in a single account each as part of efforts to increase transparency and accountability in the use of public funds. The partner states agreed on the Treasury Single Account (TSA) to […]
Kenya: Stock Exchange confidence dampened as more firms risk delisting
Kenya’s Capital Markets Authority has put on a watchlist a number of listed companies that are facing liquidity and corporate governance issues, with the possibility of suspending and eventually delisting them from trading. The EastAfrican has learnt that at least eight firms listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange are facing liquidity and corporate governance challenges […]
Cash is Expensive says Barclays Bank Kenya CEO
The CEO, Barclays Kenya, Jeremy Awori, is confident that cash payments are going to be a thing of the past. We are quickly moving towards a cashless society, thanks to MPESA and other innovations like crypto payments that are enabling this shift. Jeremy Awori, CEO, Barclays Bank of Kenya, was a guest speaker, together with […]