Friday, March 29

Money Deals

insurtech innovation
  • mTek, an insurtech innovation platform, has secured a $1.25 million investment from Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures and Founders Factory Africa to fuel its expansion across East Africa.
  • The firm aims to streamline the insurance process, enhance customer experiences, and improve operational efficiency.
  • This investment and expansion plans underscore mTek’s commitment to making insurance more accessible and affordable.

The insurance sector across East Africa is poised to experience intense activity following plans by the digital platform mTek to revamp the industry. mTek, a pioneering digital insurance platform, has secured $1.25 million (approximately Sh167.8 million) in funding from Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures (VKAV) and Founders Factory Africa (FFA) to spearheaded this investment, which is poised to catalyze its strategic expansion across East African region.

This capital infusion will strengthen mTek’s position as a leader in insurtech innovation, using state-of-the-art technology to revolutionize the uptake of cover services.

At the heart of mTek’s mission is …

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Uganda's Diaspora Remittances
  • Uganda’s diaspora remittances have seen 13.4% jump, reaching $1.42 billion.
  • Remittances continue to outshine foreign direct investment and official development assistance as the primary source of external finance for low and middle-income countries.
  • Economies are leveraging diaspora remittances through innovative financial instruments such as diaspora bonds and policies aimed at financial inclusion to enhance their impact on development.

Diaspora remittances from Ugandans living and working abroad increased by 13.4 per cent in the 12 months ending January 2024. This surge, as reported by the Bank of Uganda’s Executive Director of Research, Mr. Adam Mugume, highlights the increasing role of diaspora inflows in the nation’s economy, reaching $1.42 billion, up from the previous $1.25 billion.

Such growth underscores the essential contribution of the Uganda’s diaspora remittances amidst a challenging global financial landscape.

Globally, remittances have emerged as a critical source of external finance for low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), overshadowing foreign …

Burundi's agricultural sector
  • AfDB grant aims to enhance Burundi’s productivity by four to five times and bolster agro-processing for increased domestic and export food availability.
  • It also promises significant economic diversification, creating jobs, improving food security and nutrition, and strengthening regional trade.
  • This investment can help safeguard the livelihoods of countless farmers against the increasing unpredictability of weather patterns due to climate change.

The African Development Bank (AfDB) has announced $80 million grant to bolster Burundi’s agricultural sector and transform the nation’s agricultural industry.

AfDB’s Director General for East Africa, Nnenna Nwabufo, revealed this financial pledge after meeting with Burundian Prime Minister Gervais Ndirakobuca in Bujumbura. This funding is poised to multiply the sector’s productivity by four to five times, with a keen focus on enhancing agro-processing capabilities to not only increase the availability of food within Burundi but also boost its export potential.

The collaboration between the AfDB and the Burundian government …

IFC
  • International Finance Corporation targets specific projects in Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Senegal, and South Africa.
  • IFC’s $30 million (Sh4.8 billion), own-account investment will help Africa Infrastructure Investment Fund 4 Partnership (AIIF4) exceed its final close target of $500 million (Sh80.4 billion).
  • A pan-African infrastructure private equity firm called the Africa50 Infrastructure Acceleration firm I is raising up to $500 million for investments

Kenya is among six African countries that International Finance Corporation (IFC) will pump $30 million (about KSh4.8 billion) equity investment to fund works on essential infrastructure.

The fund, managed by Africa Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM), part of the Old Mutual Group, will support projects in the telecoms, renewable energy, and transport sectors across Africa but with a specific focus on Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Senegal, and South Africa.

In the telecoms sector, the fund will focus on financing data centers, fiber networks, and communications towers. In …

food security in Africa
  • The IMF’s support fund refers to the designated Special Drawing Right (SDR), which serves as an international reserve asset to supplement the official reserves of its member nations.
  • It represents a potential claim on the members’ freely usable currencies, primarily intended to provide liquidity to a nation in the event of an economic crisis.
  • As of September, Kenya’s SDR quota at the IMF stood at US$542.8 million, equivalent to KSh91.8 billion.

Leaders from developing countries continue to pursue the implementation of the proposed re-channeling of the IMF’s support fund through development banks, aiming for affordability and increased impact scale.

This was evident on the sidelines of the recent COP28 summit, where African leaders emphasized the acceleration of the process towards realizing the proposal. The summit took place between November 30 and December 12 last year in Dubai.

Proposal: IMF’s support fund to come through AfDB

African Development Bank (AfDB) Group …

venture capital
  • In East Africa, Kenya’s venture capital share grew from 86 percent in 2022 to 91 percent in 2023.
  • Eastern Africa’s largest economy attracted $880 million (Sh139.9 billion) in 2023, representing 31 percent of all startup investments on the continent.
  • Africa: The Big Deal report shows that startups in Kenya that raised $100,000 (Sh16 million) and above stood at 93.

Kenyan startups secured an impressive $800 million in venture capital funding in 2023, surpassing Egypt, Nigeria, and South Africa to emerge as the leading recipient of investments on the continent.

The latest findings from Africa: The Big Deal, a platform specializing in startup deals, reveal that Kenya’s share accounted for 28 percent of the total funds raised across Africa.

The report highlights that Egypt, which took the lead in 2022, secured the second position with $640 million in capital funding. South Africa followed closely with $600 million, while Nigeria …

MIGA energy security DRC
  • The International Solar Alliance (ISA) is setting up a 15MW project under its Global Solar Facility (GSF) backed by the World Bank’s Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA).
  • In collaboration with solar power firm Nuru, the project will be spread across three provinces in the Eastern DRC.
  • Nuru plans to deploy an additional 39MW in subsequent phases, aiming to provide power to up to 5 million people by 2025.

Nuru, a pioneering solar power company, has embarked on an ambitious project with the mission of constructing a 15-megawatt (MW) solar metro grid capacity in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

This groundbreaking initiative is set to unfold across three provinces in Eastern Congo, where the abundant availability of solar energy will be harnessed not only as a power source but also as a beacon of hope for a region often shrouded in the shadows of energy poverty.

In the face of …

media bills Kenya
  • The Kenyan government owes media companies $10.8 million (Sh1.7 billion) in pending media bills.
  • Kenyan media companies have, however, been challenged to become innovative during the tough economic times and reinvent their operating models to remain competitive.
  • Kenya’s media industry is among the sectors worst hit with the changing business models according a 2023 report by Oxford university and Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.

The Kenyan government has offered to pay media organizations $10.8 million (Sh1.7 billion) which it owes in pending media bills, a move that will significantly help them address financial struggles within the sector brought about by the changing media landscape.

Media organizations in Kenya have been grappling with cash flow challenges due to outstanding payments from the State, leading some companies to resort to employee layoffs and substantial budget cuts as a consequence of mounting financial difficulties.

This situation arises at a time when …

Nairobi Securities Exchange investor sell-off in 2023
  • The Banking Sector had shares worth US$50,126 (Sh7.9 million) transacted which accounted for 63.34 percent of the day’s traded value at Nairobi Securities Exchange.
  • In 2021, 8.7 million shares were traded worth $1.5 million (Sh242 million), while 2022 saw the number rise to 17.6 million shares valued at $4 million (Sh630 million).
  • In the nine-month period leading up to September 2023, the NSE ranked as the least performing African bourse in dollar terms, underscoring the impact of foreign withdrawals and global shocks.

Trading at the Nairobi Securities Exchange began 2024 on a four-year low on Tuesday, with 897,000 shares traded, signaling low confidence among investors.

The value of the shares dropped to $79,314 (Sh12.5 million), compared to 2023 when the bourse opened trading with 1.73 million shares, equivalent to $21,467 (Sh33.8 million). It is the first time in four years that the NSE began with less than a million shares …

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