Author: David Indeje

COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the need to tap into innovation, new technologies, and cost efficiencies accelerating the digital transformation journey across various sectors. “We should look for the opportunities that this crisis has presented to us, both us as leaders, and also as consumers,” said Mrs. Mary Wangari Wamae Equity Group Executive Director of the Groups’ Subsidiaries at Leading Women in Banking and Finance e-conference hosted by the Kenya Bankers Association. According to Wamae, the COVID-19 pandemic started as a health crisis and because of the measures that had to be taken, it led to an economic crisis.   “The impact…

The Kenyan economy plunged at an unprecedented rate in the second quarter of the year as Covid-19 pandemic hit the service sector. The gross domestic product, the economy’s total output of goods and services, fell at a rate of 5.7%, compared with growth of 4.9% in the three months through March and expansion of 5.3% in the same period a year earlier, the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics. “Although Kenya was somehow spared the severe effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in the first quarter of 2020, the country bore the brunt of the disease in the second quarter of 2020.”…

The National Treasury raised Ksh.60 billion from October’s 20-year and 25-year-opened bonds from its domestic market. Investors made bids worth to Ksh.69.1 billion against a pre-advertised offer of Ksh.50 billion. The 25-year bond sale saw bids worth Ksh.46 billion with the shorter 20 year bond with 10.6 years to maturity fetching bids amounting to Ksh.23.2 billion. The improved appetite resonates with NCBA Market Analysts who had earlier in the week said the issue was likely to receive fair interest from the public considering the persistent dearth of alternatives and improved liquidity partly from maturing papers. “While FXD1/2011/20 (10.6yrs to maturity)…

Kenya’s biggest telecoms operator Safaricom controls 50 percent of all inbound diaspora remittance through its M-Pesa Global platform. According to the Central Bank of Kenya data, it accounted for Kshs 2.65 trillion between April 2019 and the end of March this year. M-PESA Global allows customers to make and receive payments from 200 markets across the world since its launch in 2018. During the period, it registered a 12.1 percent growth in the period with M-pesa service transactional value at Kshs 13.9 trillion after registering a growth of 18.4 percent as revealed from the telco’s  9th Sustainable Business Report. “Our…

Kenya has been ranked at the 7th position in the latest edition of the Africa Financial Markets Index that benchmarks countries’ performance across a host of indicators within financial market development. However, Kenya’s score is a decline compared to its third position in 2019 and 2018. The decline was attributed to Kenya’s inability to make significant gains in the legality and enforceability of standard financial markets master agreements amongst its peers. Other factors include the dependence of foreign investor participation on its equities market, reduced market capitalization at the bourse which was triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic which saw foreign…

VSA Capital has inked a strategic partnership deal with Faida Investment Bank expanding the London-based firm’s African footprint.  In a joint statement, VSA Capital Chief Executive Andrew Monk said the partnership will enable increase appeal to multinational clients looking for opportunities in Africa. Mr Monk says Faida Bank is in a leading position in East Africa in the provision of security trading services thus will strengthen VSA Capital’s presence across Africa. VSA Capital operates offices in London, Shanghai, and in partnership with Moshe Capital in Johannesburg. According to Monk, the partnership will create a formidable London-China-Africa axis that will see…