Browsing: Kenya

Stanbic Bank Kenya and the African Guarantee Fund for Small & Medium-sized Enterprises (AGF) have signed a Loan Portfolio Guarantee…

Social commerce may seem like a more foreign concept but it is widely used across Africa Online shopping has gained…

The effects of climate change and anthropogenic factors have adversely affected the availability of water for wildlife in Tanzania National…

Safaricom has rolled out a campaign to offer technological solutions for enterprise and the public sector The company said it…

The goal here is to have more companies register on the island to increase Zanzibar’s internal revenue through taxes and related fees. The move is also expected to create employment on the island as companies open subsidiaries they will naturally have to hire.

Overall, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF ), last year’s growth of around 4 per cent is expected to pick up to about 5½ per cent this year and to then maintain a steady growth of the next few years, assuming no other pandemic strikes that are.

Ceterisperibus, should the economic reforms announced by the new administration and the envisaged improvements in the business climate materialize, then medium-term growth could reach 6 per cent, says the IMF.

The most recent expansion by Kenya’s KCB was in Tanzania where the bank launched a mini-branch, at the EAC Secretariat Headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania late last year. This expansion speaks volumes to the merit of Kenya banking sector.

Overall speaking, Kenya’s banking industry as exemplified by KCB’s good performance is symbolic of the resilience of Kenya’s economy. The country’s economy has remained strong even in the face of recent economic shock waves wrought by Covid-19 and even regional conflict like the ongoing demonstrations in Sudan.

Actually, according to the Africa Development Bank (AfDB), Kenya’s economy is well on its way towards a full recovery, if no other Ovid waves emerge that is. However, it is not all sugar and candy, the AfDB does acknowledge that “…nearly 2 million people are estimated to have fallen into poverty, and nearly 900,000 lost their jobs,” over the cause of the pandemic.

Over the course of the next six years, LEAF is expected to deploy financing options, credit enhancement instruments and technical assistance in partnership with the private sector; including local banks.

As we approach the 2030 deadline of the SDGs, we must unfortunately acknowledge the disturbing truth, we are far from meeting the goal’s sustainable growth targets. The latest Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7 tracking report warns that close to 600 million Africans still lack access to electricity and this reality is only worsened by the Covid-19 crisis.

In his comments about the LEAF program, the Bank’s Vice President in charge of Power, Energy, Climate Change and Green Growth, Dr. Kevin Kariuki, notes: “The African Development Bank is delighted to partner with the Green Climate Fund on the Leveraging Energy Access Finance Framework, which will not only accelerate access to electricity based on decentralized renewable energy solutions, hence reducing the respective countries’ carbon footprints, but will do so with the active participation of a private sector facilitated by local currency financing and commercial capital availed under the program.”

One of the major criticisms raised against his ambitious continent-wide free trade pact is the fact that it is bound to have disproportionate benefits for different countries.  There are already pre-existing inequalities that favour more developed countries.

Bluntly speaking, it is to be reasonably expected that it is the continent’s tycoons, large business owners that will benefit the most.

Consider this, only three of the agreement’s members i.e. Nigeria, South Africa and Egypt account for almost half (50%) of all of Africa’s GDP. Take for instance the fact that in 2020 alone, the continent of Africa as a whole, imported US$20 billion worth of goods from South Africa.

With the tariff-free movement of goods, South Africa will enjoy a tremendous increase in trade output to the rest of the continent at much lower costs.

CMC Motors Group has partnered with Stanbic Bank to introduce ‘Ford Finance’ to enable clients to access competitive and flexible…

Google has unveiled the list of successful applicants of its Google for Startups Accelerator Africa Class 7 and they include…