Author: Muindi

Vodacom Group expects its newly consolidated stake in Safaricom to push earnings growth higher, even as the acquisition leaves the company carrying more debt in the near term, executives told analysts on the Q1 2027 earnings call this week. Chief Executive Shameel Joosub said the upgraded medium term targets for EBITDA and free cash flow trace directly back to Safaricom joining the group’s books. Vodacom completed its purchase of a controlling 55% stake in the Kenyan telecom operator on 30 June 2026, up from 35% previously, and began consolidating its results from 1 July. “The higher earnings growth will come…

Ecobank Group posted US$423 million in profit before tax for the first half of 2026, up 6% from a year earlier, as Africa’s largest pan-African bank pushed through a stretch of geopolitical strain and rising inflation across its 33 markets. Net revenue climbed 15% to US$1.3 billion, giving the group room to invest in technology and digital banking even as energy costs squeezed customers across the continent. The results, released this week, show a bank leaning on diversification to absorb shocks. Corporate and investment banking grew alongside consumer and commercial banking, and non-interest income, fees, trading and transaction revenue rather…

Multiple Hauliers (EA) Limited has landed back under administration, marking the latest turn in a debt battle that has dragged through Kenya’s courts and a London arbitration tribunal for more than five years. NCBA Bank Kenya PLC has appointed Muniu Thoithi and George Weru of PwC as joint administrators of the once dominant transport and logistics firm, acting under section 534 of Kenya’s Insolvency Act. The appointment is confirmed in a public notice published in the High Court of Kenya under the Insolvency Act, dated 27 July 2026, which names Thoithi and Weru directly and cites section 534 as the…

East Africa’s central bank governors used their latest gathering in Kampala to send a clear message: the region’s monetary union is moving, but not fast enough. The East African Community’s Monetary Affairs Committee wrapped up its 29th ordinary meeting on 24 July with a renewed pledge to speed up the East African Monetary Union roadmap, even as it acknowledged that no single Partner State has yet met all four criteria required to get there. Dr. Michael Atingi-Ego, Governor of the Bank of Uganda and current Chairperson of the Committee, chaired the session, bringing together governors and senior officials from central…

Kenyan startups raised KES 16.3 billion in the first half of 2026, a modest step back from the KES 17 billion recorded over the same period last year. The dip pushed Kenya to third place on the continent, trailing Egypt’s KES 42.3 billion and Nigeria’s KES 32.8 billion, according to the latest tracking from Africa: The Big Deal. The numbers mark a cooling off point after a record breaking 2025, when Kenyan startups pulled in roughly KES 126 billion and briefly overtook every other market on the continent. That run was fuelled almost entirely by clean energy players such as…

Kenya has settled on a plan to finance the expansion of Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, and most of the money will come from debt. The government intends to borrow Sh81 billion under a Sh116 billion package built to fund the upgrade of the country’s aviation gateway, according to Business Daily. The remaining Sh35 billion will come from two sources: the National Infrastructure Fund and a bond secured against future collections from the airport passenger levy. That levy applies to every international and domestic ticket sold in Kenya, and Sh18.5 billion a year from the levy has already been earmarked to…