Author: David Indeje

Africa is no longer a footnote in global strategy. It is the main event and the world’s three biggest economic powers know it. On 19 March 2026, Nick Checker, the U.S. State Department’s Senior Bureau Official for Africa, stood before the Powering Africa Summit in Washington and delivered the clearest articulation yet of the Trump administration’s approach to the continent. The message was transactional, unapologetic, and revealing. “The United States is resetting its relationship with Africa based on mutually beneficial partnerships,” Checker said, “rather than aid, dependency, and spreading divisive ideology.” Gone is the language of development assistance. In its…

Equity Group Holdings Plc has shattered its own records, reporting a 55% surge in profit after tax to KSh75.5 billion for the full year ended December 2025, up from KSh48.8 billion the previous year. The result is the largest annual profit ever reported by a Kenyan company, a multi-year transformation from a domestic retail bank into a diversified, pan-African financial services group. A Balance Sheet Built for Scale BALANCE SHEET Metric FY2025 FY2024 Change Total assets KSh 1.97tn KSh 1.80tn +9% Customer deposits KSh 1.46tn KSh 1.40tn +4% Net loans KSh 882.5bn KSh 819.2bn +8% Customer accounts 22.4 million —…

KCB Group, Kenya’s largest bank by assets, is awaiting regulatory approval to acquire a stake in regional payments firm Pesapal as it moves to expand merchant payments across East Africa. Chief Executive Paul Russo disclosed the planned transaction during an investor briefing in Nairobi, where the bank outlined its next phase of growth investments. “We are waiting for regulatory approval to complete the acquisition,” Russo said. The Pesapal deal follows KCB’s completed acquisition of Riverbank Solutions, approved by regulators. Together, the two transactions signal a deliberate push by the bank into the technology infrastructure that sits beneath everyday business transactions.…

Centum Investment Company Plc has completed the sale of its remaining 50% stake in Bakki Holdco Limited, drawing a definitive line under a banking investment that spanned more than two decades, multiple failed transactions, and a hard-won exit strategy. Bakki Holdco was the holding vehicle through which Centum maintained a 27.2% indirect interest in Sidian Bank. With regulatory approvals secured from both the Central Bank of Kenya and the Competition Authority of Kenya, Bakki will cease to be a Centum subsidiary. The buyer has not been disclosed, though Centum expects to book a modest gain above the KSh 1.0 billion…

KCB Group on Wednesday reported an 11% rise in full year 2025 pre-tax profit to Ksh 90.9 billion, up from Ksh 82 billion the previous year, driven by growth in interest income across its seven East African markets. Profit after tax closed at a record Ksh 68.4 billion. Total assets grew 9% to Ksh 2.15 trillion. The board declared a dividend of Ksh 22.5 billion, the largest in the Group’s history, with the share price up 58% during the year. Group Chairman Dr. Joseph Kinyua said the results reflected a business holding steady through a testing environment. “The performance remained…

Africa’s public relations industry no longer treats artificial intelligence as a horizon. It has arrived, settled in, and begun rewriting the rules of influence, storytelling, and reputation management across the continent. The Glass House PR Report 2026: The State of PR in Africa, the most comprehensive pan-African study of its kind — makes one thing unmistakably clear: the age of AI-powered communications is not coming. It is already here. Speaking at the report’s launch in Nairobi, Ambassador Phillip Thigo, Kenya’s Special Envoy on Technology, put it directly: “AI is fundamentally disruptive, especially in an era where conversational technologies have become…