Author: Korir Issa

South Africa’s FirstRand is hunting for a Kenyan bank to buy, joining a wave of South African lenders racing to grab a share of one of East Africa’s most profitable banking markets. FirstRand Chief Executive Mary Vilakazi said the group has been scouting opportunities in Kenya for years but has yet to find a deal at the right price. “There must be a willing seller at the right price for us to do any deal,” Vilakazi said. “What we will not do is overpay for any asset.” FirstRand currently runs only a representative office in Kenya, alongside full operations in…

Kenya’s competition regulator has cleared the sale of Diageo’s stake in East African Breweries to Japan’s Asahi Group Holdings, removing the last major regulatory obstacle to one of the largest corporate deals in the country’s history. The Competition Authority of Kenya approved Asahi’s acquisition of Diageo Kenya Limited, the vehicle that holds a 65 percent stake in EABL, along with UDV Kenya Limited. The approval for UDV Kenya carries no conditions. The approval covering Diageo Kenya does, and the terms attached to it will shape how the region’s dominant brewer operates for years to come. What The Authority Approved The…

Africa’s office sector is dividing into winners and losers. Buildings run to a standard are pulling away from ageing stock, according to Knight Frank’s Africa Offices Market Dashboard for H1 2026, which tracks prime office performance across the continent’s leading cities. The report finds that occupiers concentrate demand on buildings that operate without interruption and meet a quality bar. That shift is driving occupancy and rents in the buildings that clear the bar, while older stock falls further behind. In January, Kofisi shut two of its Nairobi centres after losses, while demand kept shifting toward Grade A space in prime…

Forbes has placed four Kenyan banks among the world’s top performing lenders, giving East Africa a rare seat at a table built mostly for Wall Street and the City of London. KCB Group, Equity Group, Co-operative Bank of Kenya, and Stanbic Holdings all appear on Forbes’ inaugural World’s Top Performing Banks 2026 list, a 500-bank ranking spanning 89 countries. Produced with the research firm Statista, the list judges banks on financial performance rather than customer surveys, a shift Forbes says makes the results easier to compare across markets and currencies. No other East African institution made the cut this cycle,…

Apple introduced its first foldable phone on Wednesday, closing out a launch event that also marked new CEO John Ternus’s debut on stage. The iPhone Duo opens like a book into a wide interior screen, and it arrives seven years after Samsung shipped the first mainstream foldable. Ternus took over from Tim Cook earlier this month and used his opening remarks to frame the iPhone as the device best suited to deliver artificial intelligence to everyday life. He then moved through a lineup that included the iPhone 18 Pro, AirPods 5, an updated Apple Watch and, finally, the Duo. What…

Crown Paints Kenya PLC plans to end its reliance on imported paint binder by building its own production plant in Machakos County. The company intends to construct an emulsion binder and plastic injection moulding facility on twin plots at Lukenya, Athi River. An environmental and social impact assessment values the project at Sh355 million. The plant will let Crown Paints produce the emulsion binder polymer it currently imports, along with the plastic containers it uses to package its paints. Why Crown Paints Is Building Its Own Supply Chain Crown Paints was established in 1958 and is listed on the Nairobi…