Author: David Indeje

Of all the regions across the globe with the fastest mobile money growth, sub-Saharan African tops the list thanks to Safaricom’s M-PESA, the world’s leading mobile money system, which continues to play a massive role in its success. From a basic SIM card-based money transfer application into a fully-fledged financial service, hosting a ton of other functionalities including merchant services, the growth of M-PESA is unparalleled – and it just got better. Safaricom’s launch of the new M-PESA Super App introduces cutting-edge technology that consolidates all the M-PESA services to help users do more, fast, and conveniently. It is more…

Kenya Electricity Generating Company PLC (KenGen)  on Tuesday said it expects to receive an estimated Ksh.119 million from carbon credits under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The listed utility firm said its additional 309,495 certified emission reduction credits (CERs) are for sale. This brings the total amount of issued carbon credits to 550,981.  KenGen has been focusing on the production of green energy and has an installed generation capacity of 1,818MW, of which over 86 per cent is drawn from green sources namely: Hydro (826MW), Geothermal (713MW), Thermal (253MW), and Wind…

Facebook Inc. and Liquid Intelligent Technologies, have partnered to lay 1,200kms of Fibre in the Democratic Republic of Congo.  The network will help create a digital corridor from the Atlantic Ocean through the Congo Rainforest to East Africa, and onto the Indian Ocean. Liquid Technologies has been working on the digital corridor for more than two years, which now reaches Central DRC. This corridor will connect DRC to its neighbouring countries including Angola, Congo Brazzaville, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. The new build will stretch from Central DRC to the Eastern border with Rwanda and extend the reach of 2Africa,…

Kenya’s foreign exchange reserves surged by USD 1.38 billion to reach a record high of USD 9.5 billion in the week ended July 2, the latest data from the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) showed on Friday. The rise in reserves was on account of the proceeds of the Eurobond issue coupled with the USD 407.0 million from the International Monetary Fund disbursement and the USD 130.0 million World Bank loan financing. “The usable foreign exchange reserves remained adequate at USD 9,494 million (5.81 months of import cover) as at July 1st. This meets the CBK’s statutory requirement to endeavour to maintain…

The Covid-19 pandemic could harm business activity in Kenya’s private sector. This is despite a second consecutive monthly improvement in the health of the private sector in June, according to Stanbic Bank Kenya PMI. Stanbic Bank Kenya Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) in a statement said, “Concerns about further COVID-19 restrictions meant that the business outlook slipped to the second-weakest in the series history.” The PMI fell from 52.5 in May to 51.0 in June indicating a sustained, but weaker, expansion in the Kenyan private sector economy. Readings above 50.0 signal an improvement in business conditions on the previous month, while…

Regional banking and financial services group I&M Holding on Thursday said the company name has been changed to I&M Group. The lender says this is after its shareholders approved the name change and “receipt of the certificate of change of name issued by the Registrar of Companies dated 28th June 2021.” The bank also said it has unveiled its Wealth Management and Advisory Business, in a move expected to drive business growth through revenue diversification. They will target high net worth and premium customers and potential customers will be offered through I&M Capital, a subsidiary of the I&M Group PLC.…