Author: Korir Issa

Tala, the digital lending firm, has raised USD 145 million (16.1 billion shillings) in Series E funding. Upstart, a company founded by ex-Googlers Dave Girouard, Anna Counselman, and Paul Gu, led the round. The Stellar Development Foundation’s Enterprise Fund participated, alongside new investors Kindred Ventures and the J. Safra Group. The new funding adds to the over 360 million dollars contributed by existing investors valuing Tala at about 800 million dollars. Tala plans to use these funds to accelerate the rollout of its new financial account experience, which provides customers with fresh tools to borrow, save and manage their money,…

National Bank of Kenya (NBK) in partnership with Aqua for All is introducing a KSh 5 billion Water, Sanitation and Hygiene financing program. The program seeking to address the financial needs, efficiencies, sustainability and growth of Water sector enterprises, institutions and communities. “With this new product, we seek to scale up the SMEs in the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene economy for sustainable water services. As a bank, we are constantly looking for opportunities to support long-term growth to SMEs in all sectors of the economy,” NBK Managing Director, Paul Russo said during the launch on Thursday. The NBK Water, Sanitation…

vivo has unveiled its latest Y-series model the vivo Y21, a mid-range phone intending to drive the next wave of the smartphone revolution in Kenya. The smartphone has a 5000mAh battery and an 18W charge. The device showcases 4GB + 1GB 2nd Generation Extended RAM, a 64GB ROM along allowing up to 1TB of memory expansion (to be purchased separately). Vivo Y21 comes with a 13 MP main camera on the rear. The rear camera set-up is equipped with a 2MP macro camera lens that draws a focus as close as 4cm. Y21 is available in colour hues of Metallic…

Absa Bank Kenya Thursday reported a profit of Ksh5.57 billion for the half-year ended June 31, 2021, over KSh589 million for the corresponding period of last fiscal. The profit is an equivalent of 846 per cent (9 times) growth attributed to a drop in loan loss provisioning from KSh5.4 billion last year to KSh1.9 billion. The strong performance was largely driven by growth in interest income particularly in the small and medium enterprises segment as the Bank accelerated its efforts in supporting businesses to recover from the effects of the pandemic and reposition for growth.  Announcing the results, Absa Bank…

Across the globe, the rate of urbanization has grown tremendously with nearly 66 per cent of the world’s population predicted to be urban by 2050. Africa’s urban population has been growing at a very high rate – from about 27 per cent in 1950 to 40 per cent in 2015 and is projected to reach 60 per cent by 2050 according to UN-DESA, 2014. Most Africans have moved to urban centres to enhance their productivity and living standards and by 2019, 40.71 per cent of Sub-Saharan Africa’s total population lived in urban areas and cities. With the rapid urban growth…

Kenya has moved to increase the 10 million shillings minimum threshold required for foreign investors to obtain a trading certificate qualifying them for incentives such as tax rebates and investment deductions. According to Dr Fred Matiang’i, the Interior Cabinet Secretary, the ministry will be seeking approval from parliament regarding the amendment of the Kenya Investment Promotion Act including raising the minimum threshold. The law set a minimum of 100,000 US dollars (approximately 10 million Kenyan shillings) for the certificate, a figure the CS claims is too low given the size of the Kenyan economy. “For a country our size and…