Browsing: Africa

Kenya’s Equity Bank has been named Africa’s Best Digital Bank for 2019 at the Euromoney Awards for Excellence, validating its role in delivering simple, fast, convenient and affordable banking products and services to customers.

Equity has been recognised for being a bank that shows true leadership in its digital offerings, both in corporate and retail banking, and uses technology to benefit both clients and the efficiency of the institution, placing digital at the heart of its business.

Digitisation has seen 93 per cent of loans disbursed by the bank, being accessed through the mobile channels, while 97 per cent of all cash-based transactions are happening outside Equity Bank branches, with mobile and agency channels taking the lion’s share.

READ ALSO:Fintech drives Equity Bank’s diaspora remittances to Ksh100Bn

Digitisation of the customer journey has eased customer experience leading to growth of digital payment transactions by 94 per cent in the …

Economic diplomacy can conquer poverty and create more jobs in Africa, President Uhuru Kenyatta has said.
The Kenyan President has since called on those in positions of power to provide quality leadership by getting actively involved in economic diplomacy that delivers opportunities for growth and transformation.

President Kenyatta spoke at Avani Victoria Falls Resort in the tourist town of Livingstone in Zambia, when he addressed the inaugural National Economic Summit (NES) at the invitation of President Dr Edgar Lungu.

READ ALSO:Why it’s too expensive for Africa trading internationally

Economic diplomacy is an engine that developing countries are employing to drive faster economic development especially in Africa.

It is becoming a major theme of the external relations of virtually all countries.  Economic Diplomacy promotes a country’s foreign and financial relations in support of its foreign policy. (Modafinil)

Current trends include increasing collaboration between state and non-official agencies, and …

Kenya’s Insurance sector is set to face disruption following the launch of a new InsurTech ecosystem seeking to create new solutions to the ailing insurance sector.

READ:Why Kenya’s insurance sector is “rotten”

Over 60 InsurTech start-ups pitched to investors at the inaugural two day Africa 3.0 conference held in Nairobi, as they seek to partner in increasing insurance penetration in the region.

The Conference which was organised Market Minds in partnership with Evolution East Africa and the UK Department for International Trade also saw over 150 start-ups from Africa participate.

Market Minds Founder, Sebastian De Zulueta, says a number of deals are expected to be signed with over 30 venture capitalists keen to tap into the opportunities in the insurance market in Kenya and Africa at large.

READ ALSO:Sanlam Kenya reveals secret weapon for 2019

“East Africa’s mobile penetration gives great opportunities for disruptions in the insurance sector. …

Pan-African financier that exclusively supports the development of the housing and real estate sector in Africa, Shelter Afrique, has urge governments to establish a housing microfinance fund to improve access to housing finance by those in the lower end of the market.

Speaking at the Affordable Housing Investment Summit in Nairobi recently, Shelter Afrique’s Chief Executive Officer Andrew Chimphondah said most policies had an exclusive urban focus, and non-consideration of the low-income groups and the rural areas.

According to Shelter Afrique, establishment of such a fund would make it easier to facilitate efficient and inclusive housing market systems and make affordable housing a reality across Africa.

Currently, 90 per cent of Africans cannot afford to buy a house or qualify for a mortgage.

READ ALSO:AfDB to inject more millions to support affordable housing in Africa

“Access to adequate housing for low-income earners is a critical development issue globally and …

Cellulant’s Agrikore platform – an online marketplace for smallholder farmers, agricultural input and produce traders is tapping into Africa’s emerging Agritech market valued at €5.3 billion (US$5.9 billion) according to a new report by the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) and Dalberg Advisors.

This comes as 94 per cent of the continent’s emerging Agritech market remains untapped, according to the survey.

The State of Digitalisation of Agriculture in Africa 2019 report identifies online marketplace solutions such as Agrikore as significant use cases of how digital tools are being built to tackle major challenges of attracting and retaining a significant number of buyers and sellers, and in thus doing, help to solve the problem of inefficient and fragmented agricultural markets.

READ ALSO:Kenyan fintech Cellulant sells $47.5M stake to American investors

The Agriculture market in Africa is projected to grow to US$1trillion by 2030. It continues to be …

Kenya’s Equity Bank has been named as the most ‘Socially Responsible Bank in Africa’ at the most prestigious Africa’s banking and financial sector event – The African Banker Awards 2019.

This affirms Equity’s social and environmental leadership on the continent.

The award recognises Equity’s initiatives steered through the Equity Group Foundation (EGF) programmes that are positively impacting communities.

READ ALSO:Renewable energy attracts IFC loan for Equity Bank

The programmes are across five thematic areas that include education and leadership development, entrepreneurship and financial education, health, agriculture and agribusiness, and energy and environment.

The efforts they are geared towards, go beyond the philanthropic use of funds to use of overall knowledge, resources and reputation to improve livelihoods.

Through EGF, the bank has had successful initiatives, key among them being the improvement of secondary school education access for 16,168 students under the Wings to Fly program; Financial Literacy training that …

Investors are keen on new developments at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) as the market opens its counters for derivatives trading.

The NSE Derivatives Market (NEXT) futures start trading today with the official launch of the market slated for Thursday, July 11, 2019.

“NEXT provides new opportunities to investors, enabling them to better diversify their portfolios, manage risk, and deploy capital more efficiently,” NSE Chief Executive Geoffrey Odundo said.

Futures contracts provide investors with risk management tools in the wake of unexpected volatility in asset prices.

READ:NSE gets green light for Derivatives Market

NEXT will also enable Kenya to consolidate its position as a leading financial services hub offering a wide variety of investments products.

The  NEXT will commence with index futures and single stock futures on selected indices and stocks respectively, the bourse’s management said.

The Exchange will initially offer index futures contracts on the NSE25 Share Index …

Software Group, a global software company that provides digital financial solutions with African operations run from Kenya, has appointed Mr. Connor Hanan to the role of Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

Founded in 2009 and headquartered in Sofia, Bulgaria, it currently serves a worldwide client base in more than 70 countries from 9 regional offices located in Australia, Bulgaria, Egypt, Ghana, India, Kenya, Mexico, the Philippines.

Prior to his appointment, Mr. Hanan was the company’s Key Global Accounts Manager. He has had a successful career focused on financial services specific to affordable shelter in developing contexts. Within this sector he helped establish operations, Small Businesses and partnerships across roughly 35 markets in Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

Mr. Hanan has over 11 years of experience with FSPs, client-focused product design, and market analysis, a seasoned professional in Investor/Client Relations, as a Program/Project manager, and as a Director of …

The East African region has recorded a marked increase in the number of PE funds looking to invest in the region from 72 in 2016 to 97 in 2018, according to a new report released by KPMG and the East Africa Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (EAVCA).

In 2017 and 2018, 84 PE-backed deals were reported at an estimated value of US$1.4 billion.

According to EAVCA Executive Director Eva Warigia, the region recorded a 12 per cent increase in the amount of funds sourced from the domestic market largely driven by participation by pension funds.

“Local participation by pension funds is one way to mitigate against the risk attached to investing in Africa,” Warigia said during the release of the report.

“Participation of pension funds in private equity investments is improving access to capital for small businesses whilst enabling the funds to tap into new sectors for their portfolio …