Author: Kimani Chege

Kaspersky Lab has announced plans to open a new office in Kigali, Rwanda, to support the rapid growth of its business in East Africa. This strategic move will provide more room for development as well as closer proximity to new partners in the region, allowing Kaspersky Lab to continue its expansion into the promising African market.

The decision to open a new office was made during Eugene Kaspersky’s visit to Rwanda where he met with Rwanda President Paul Kagame, at the Transform Africa Summit. During the visit, they discussed how Kaspersky Lab could collaborate with the Rwandan government and ways to better protect the country from cyberthreats.

“Governments and enterprises across Africa need an integrated approach to complex threat detection and response as they fight cybercriminals who have significant financial resources and are constantly looking to exploit any vulnerability,” said Eugene Kaspersky, CEO of Kaspersky Lab.

The Kigali office will …

Kenya has moved to rein in betting companies in what has been described as an ‘increasing political opposition into the industry as a whole.’

The industry has been thriving in the country until the government in late 2017 embarked on different measures to control gambling.

Top on the onslaught has been Kenya Revenue Authority, Cabinet Secretary of Interior Dr Fred Matiang’i and Betting Control and Licensing Board (BCLB) which has either objected in the manner betting companies were operating or complained of tax evasion.

Dr Matiang’i made good his threat to deport foreign operatives of these betting companies by signing deportation letters of 17 workers of different companies on charges of working in Kenya illegally as well as evading taxes.

He said betting companies owe KRA huge sums of money in revenue and their presence in Kenya was making the situation worse.

“Poignantly, attempts to recover this amount have not …

AfricInvest, a leading pan-African private equity firm, has announced the fourth close of Financial Inclusion Vehicle (FIVE), an evergreen platform for investing in financial institutions in Africa.Through its investments, FIVE aims to improve access to financial services for the growing African population, while achieving attractive financial returns for its investors.

AfDB, the African Development Bank, joined the capital of FIVE alongside existing investors FMO and BIO both development finance institutions of the Netherlands and Belgium, respectively; Norfund, the Norwegian investment fund for developing countries; IFU, the Danish investment fund for developing countries; KfW, the German government-owned development bank and CBK Pension Fund, the pension fund of the Central Bank of Kenya.

As the current level of banking penetration on the continent is a mere 20%, achieving universal access will require a fivefold increase. Digital transformation is one of the key drivers toward the universal access and as such, FIVE seeks …

IFC in cooperation with L.E.K. Consulting released a new report showing the demand for digital skills in Sub-Saharan Africa is expected to grow at a faster rate than in other markets.

The report estimates that 230 million jobs in Sub-Saharan Africa will require digital skills by 2030, presenting investors and education operators with an estimated $130 billion opportunity to train the future workforce in digital skills. IFC launched the report, ‘Digital Skills in Sub-Saharan Africa: Spotlight on Ghana’, at the group’s office in Accra, Ghana. Nearly $4 billion of the opportunity in digital skills will be in Ghana.

The report sheds light on the crucial need for digital skills as a driver of economic growth and competitiveness across sectors in the region—from agriculture to services. The demand for digital skills is evolving and presents opportunities for different stakeholders to play a role, particularly the private sector.

The report finds …

Blockchain Association of Africa (BAA), a South Africa based non-profit pan-African organisation, announced its strategic partnership with Afriplains Digital, Tanzania(AFD) and  Blockchain Worx, Singapore (BCW) to leverage synergies and further its efforts to equip the community and stakeholders in Africa with hands-on Blockchain education, acumen and tools to shape Africa’s future.

The partnership will focus on the common vision of driving technology evangelization, community outreach, capacity building and local talent building.

This will be targeted towards driving adoption, helping the implementation of this cutting-edge technology and bringing sustainable, unparalleled business-value to Africa. As a part of the alliance, the three parties will kick-off their collaboration by deploying Blockchain Worx’s Blockchain Innovation Centre across local chapters in South Africa, Uganda, Rwanda & Tanzania.

The Blockchain Innovation Centre is a digital centre of excellence, designed to explore possibilities, forge alliances and accelerate innovation within institutions and communities.…

Kenya has unveiled yet another beautifully crafted policy document to guide adoption of technology in the country.  The new digital economy blueprint was unveiled to investors and guests attending the Transform Africa Summit in Kigali, Rwanda. The blueprint themed “powering Kenya’s transformation” moves to harness more uses of ICT to boost Kenya’s economy.

The blueprint was unveiled in the presence of over 4,000 participants among them government bureaucrats, policymakers, innovators and technology investors who are meeting to discuss how ICT resources can be harnessed to boost African economies.

Through the blueprint, the government aims at enhancing the contribution of ICTs to the economy through digital governance solutions, digitizing business processes, facilitating infrastructure delivery, innovation driven entrepreneurship and promotion of digital skills and values.

“We are the new frontier for trade and investment with estimates indicating that by 2025, business opportunities in Africa will be about US$ 5.6 trillion. More importantly, …

The Capital Markets Authority (CMA) has taken enforcement action against individuals in Kenya who it says has been culpable for unethical undertakings in fixed income securities in the last fear years. The move is seen as CMA’s effort to instill proffesionalism in the securities trading in the country mainly through a scheme known as ‘Front Running’.

CMA has taken enforcement action against Mr. Rodrick Muhoro, a bond trader, following conclusion of investigations with respect to allegation of irregular trading of Government Securities in 2016 and 2017.

Consequently,  CMA has imposed a financial penalty of Kshs 208 Million being twice the amount of benefit Mr Muhoro received from irregular trading and banned him from conducting bonds trading for a period of 10 years.

“According to the investigations, Mr. Muhoro conspired with brokers to defraud investors in bond transactions undertaken between January 2016 and June 2017 through front running,”  a press stament …

Social enterprise firm Sistema.bio, the largest biogas company in Africa, has announced plans to impact 100,000 farmers in Kenya with biodigester technology over the next three years following a successful close of a round of fund raising.

The closure of Serie A Investment round worth KShs 1.2 billion is expected to drive its growth in Kenya. The round was lead by international investors ENGIE RDE, EU Electrifi Fund, AlphaMunid, Triodos-Hivos Fund, Dila Capital, EcoEnterprises and other impact and commercial investors. Sistema.bio Co-Founder and CEO, Alex Eaton noted that Kenya’s focus on food security within the Big Four Agenda creates great opportunities for agricultural investments and clean energy.

“Sistema.bio is assembling the bioidigester technology locally, creating employment opportunities for hundreds of Kenyans, while educating farmers on the use of organic fertilizers in their farms, directly supporting the SDGs and the Big Four Agenda,” said Alex.

With the concerns of rising fuel …

RENEW and the Impact Angel Network (IAN) have committed capital to a fund dedicated to investing in women-owned and led companies in Ethiopia and Uganda.

RENEW and the IAN, now one of the most active investment groups in East Africa focusing on small and medium enterprises (SMEs), designed the fund to address a pressing need to close the financing gap for women-owned companies in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Some of the investors are meeting this week at the third Impact Angel Network (IAN) International Gathering in Washington, D.C.

RENEW, with its largest office in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, manages the IAN’s investment operations and provides investment advisory and consulting services in support of its investments.

RENEW’s work in Ethiopia was piloted with USAID and is currently undertaken with financial support from the Government of Canada provided through Global Affairs Canada. The project, Accelerating Business Growth, aims at sustainable job creation for low-skilled workers, …

The Retirement Benefits Authority has announced an 8 percent year-on-year increase in the total assets under management by fund managers and approved issuers in Kenya.

According to the recently released RBA Retirement Benefits Industry report for December 2018, 16 fund managers and 15 approved issuers, submitted 1,236 scheme reports with a total fund value of Ksh. 980 billion representing an 8 percent increase compared to the December 2017 values.

The report further confirms that the total assets managed by fund managers amounted to Ksh. 813 billion while the approved issuers managed Ksh. 167 billion at the end of December 2018.

In terms of investments by fund managers and approved issuers, Sanlam Investments East Africa Company Limited (SIEAL) maintained its industry lead as the fund manager with the largest pension scheme assets under management, totaling Ksh. 202 billion which constitutes 20.6 percent of Kenyan pension sector assets.

The RBA report states …