Author: Kimani Chege

Commercial banks in Kenya have been on the limelight with accusations of abetting money laundering and being involved in national corruption scandals. Such was the case several banks which in 2018, CBK accused them of participating in payments for the National Youth Services (NYS) scandal., In this case, the director of public prosecution announced that he was considering prosecuting 20 senior officials in five banks, which they believe aided the laundering of at least Ksh1 billion ($10 million) looted from the National Youth Service (NYS) between January 2016 and April 2018. These commercial banks have however developed mechanisms to conform…

Norfund, the Norwegian financial institution, an active strategic minority investor – wholly owned and funded by the Norwegian Government has unveiled its three-year strategy in East Africa. Norfund is a significant investor in the region, having been instrumental in realizing the Lake Turkana Wind Power Project and as a major investor in Equity Bank. The fund’s new strategy incorporates scaling up investments in the manufacturing and agribusiness sectors, as well as a new investment pillar on green infrastructure, including waste management, access to clean water, transmission lines and power storage. Norfund has been investing in East Africa for over 20 years…

Leading mobile payments company WorldRemit saw a 43% growth in remittances to Africa from higher-income nations in 2019. The top five countries receiving remittances from the diaspora in 2019 included Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe, with Nigeria receiving the most remittances. The top sending countries to the region included the United States, Australia, Canada, and Sweden, with the UK sending the most remittances. The diaspora plays a key role in Africa’s development story, today the value of remittances is three times larger than official development assistance (ODA) and forecasted to become higher than foreign direct investment for a handful of African countries…

CDC Group, the UK’s publicly owned impact investor, has announced a commitment of US$39.2 million to support SMEs in West Africa. CDC is backing Verod Fund III and Adiwale Fund I, West-African based private equity funds targeting SMEs in the region, with commitments of US$19.2m and US$20m respectively. In West Africa, banks and low levels of private equity activity are currently struggling to meet the financing needs of SMEs, hampering their potential as engines of economic growth in the region. Access to finance is cited as the top barrier for doing business in Nigeria and Ghana. Increasing access to capital…

International Finance Corporation (IFC) has unveiled an investment of up to EUR050mn in Habesha Breweries S.C. to help the company expand its operations in Ethiopia and increase local barley sourcing from smallholder farmers. The loan is co-funded by the Dutch development bank (FMO) and Dutch banks Coöperatieve Rabobank U.A. (Rabobank) and ING Bank N.V. (ING Bank).  Habesha was initiated by a group of local Ethiopian investors in 2009 and it has grown to be the sole supplier of inflight drinks at Ethiopian. The company is currently owned by Swinkels Family Brewers Holding N.V. (60%), 8,000 local shareholders (30%), and Linssen…

Africa is seen as one of the most promising regions for hotel developers. Aside from small chains and independents, four global hotel groups dominate signings and openings on the continent. Over the last four rolling quarters, as of September 2019, Accor, Hilton, Marriott International and Radisson Hotel Group have opened 2,800 rooms and signed deals for 6,600 rooms. Across Africa, hotel development remains important in most advanced economies, such as Morocco and South Africa; and projects are multiplying in East Africa, especially in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. In West Africa, Nigeria is back on the development scene thanks to…

icolo.io is a Kenyan data centre operator with active operations in Nairobi and Mombasa. The company designs, builds and operates state of the art carrier-neutral data centers to serve a broad spectrum of clients – telecom carriers, ISPs and peering points, IT and cloud providers, content providers, enterprise and financial services customers. To boost the operations of these data centres, icolo.io has entered into a partnership with Interxion Holding N.V,  a leading European provider of carrier and cloud-neutral colocation data centre services acquiring a controlling interest in Icolo. The Netherlands based entity has also entered into a strategic partnership with…

The financial sector in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has not been one of the most sought after in the continent. The DRC has 18 banks, five of which are local, four pan-African and nine foreign. The DRC’s ratio of bank assets to GDP at 7% lags regional peers, while only 7% of the population holds a bank account. Similar to steps taken in markets such as Zambia and Ghana, the Central Bank of Congo (BCC) has directed that all banks must raise their minimum capital to $50 million by the end of 2020. Banks have a number of…

Vivo Energy Kenya, the company that markets and distributes Shell-branded fuels and lubricants in Kenya has awarded a matatu driver and his conductor a brand new 32-seater matatu valued at Kshs 5.2 million as curtains close on the 10-week Weka Collabo promotional campaign. The campaign which also saw 15 consumers being awarded with motorbikes valued at Kshs 4.5 million, sought to reward loyal customers and sensitize matatu drivers, conductors and ‘Boda Boda’ riders on Shell fuels and lubricants. Vivo Energy operates and markets its products in countries across North, West, East and Southern Africa. The Group has a network of over 2,100…

Slawek Muturi has seen all of it. He has been to each UN-recognized country at least twice, joining a group of just a handful individuals to achieve this fete, and now plans to be the only person to have visited all the 193 countries in a single year when he embarks on his global tour in 2021. Born in Poland to a Kenyan father and Polish mother, Muturi has carried the country of his father close to his heart. So much has been the love that in several instances, he singlehandedly negotiated trade deals between Poland and Kenya and boosted…