Author: Khusoko

Foreign investors have turned bullish on Kenya as the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) with NASI, NSE 20 and NSE 25 gaining by 3.0%, 0.5% and 2.6%, respectively, taking their YTD performance to gains of 9.8%, 3.3% and 8.8% for NASI, NSE 20 and NSE 25 respectively. The equities market performance was driven by gains recorded by large-cap stocks such as Co-operative Bank, Equity Group, Safaricom and KCB Group, which gained by 7.3%, 4.1%, 4.0% and 3.5%, respectively.  The gains were however weighed down by losses recorded by stocks such as EABL, Diamond Trust Bank (DTB-K) and Standard Chartered Bank, which…

 Residential rents declined 19 per cent Office rent dropped 11 per cent Africa’s office market will likely remain subdued in 2021, property consultancy Knight Frank said on Wednesday. In its H2 2020 Africa Residential and Office Dashboards, the consultancy said that prime office rents declined by 11% on average in the year to December 2020 across the cities tracked by Knight Frank. Occupancy rates in cities such as Nairobi were recorded at 72% on average while Kampala recorded an increase in vacancy levels to 23% from 17% a year earlier during the period under review. Majority of the markets remained…

Co-operative Bank Group on Thursday posted a 24.4% fall in 2020 net profit to Ksh 10.8 billion in FY2020 attributed to a 219.5% spike in loan loss provisions. Its subsidiary, Kingdom Bank returned a net loss of  Ksh 0.2 million compared to a loss of Ksh.1.1 billion FY2019. The lender’s loan book expanded 7.5% over FY2019 to Ksh 286.6 billion driven by an increase in personal lending. Customer deposits shot up 13.8% to Ksh 378.6Bn  driven by growth in customer numbers and aggressive deposit mobilization. The Board of Directors has recommended/approved the payment of Kshs.1.00 per ordinary share (2019-Kshs.1.00) to…

Tanzania President John Pombe Magufuli is dead from heart complications at Mzena Hospital in Dar Es Salaam. He was 61. Vice President Samia Suluhu announced on Wednesday March 17, 2021 at 6 p.m. “With deep shock, we announce that today, March 17, 2021, at around 6pm, we lost our great leader and President of the United Republic of Tanzania, HE Dr John Pombe Joseph Magufuli due to heart complications at the Muzena Hospital in Dar es Salaam. Plans for the funeral are underway. Our country will be in mourning for 14 days and our flags will fly half mast,” she said. https://twitter.com/SuluhuSamia/status/1372312953609945093?s=19…

National Bank of Kenya (NBK) a subsidiary of KCB Group says it posted a profit after tax of Ksh 177 million for the year ending December 31, 2020, representing 167% growth from the previous year. This was driven by an increase in loan volumes and lower operating costs, even as the Bank battled the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Even though the pandemic disrupted our plans, slowed our recovery journey, and impacted the business and our people, we still managed to deliver some growth. This is an indication that our fundamentals are solid and remained resilient to the shock,” said…

Iyeza Health, a healthcare start-up from South Africa was named the 2021 Sankalp Africa Awards winner The company collects and delivers high-cost and critical chronic medication for HIV, diabetes, and cancer treatment drugs from public health facilities to patient’s doorsteps through a bicycle delivery service called Iyeza Express. https://twitter.com/SankalpForum/status/1367386225699663874?s=20 Sankalp Forum, an initiative of Intellecap, hosted the virtual Sankalp Africa Summit from 2nd to 4th March 2021, bringing together ecosystem stakeholders to share insights on a variety of developmental topics. “Sankalp Forum is one of our largest initiatives that aim to bring the community together to help solve the problems…