Browsing: Kenya

When the idea for Kenya’s Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) was mooted, there was clear excitement among landlocked countries in East Africa who saw a quick way to ship cargo to and from the regional maritime hub of Mombasa. It would take at most three days for a container to leave Kigali and snake all the way to Mombasa and vice versa cutting costs, risks, and time spent to move cargo and people. 

However, a decade and US$5 billion later, most of it from Chinese loans already spent, the railway line is yet to reach its final destination. In fact, it never managed to get even halfway through the Kenyan landmass.  Meanwhile partners in the project like Rwanda have cooled their interests while Uganda and South Sudan have reluctantly taken up the option of using the Naivasha inland depot as a closer destination compared to Mombasa.…

Kenyan based travel-tech outfit HotelOnline has made a strategic acquisition of companies across Africa, positioning itself at the helm of the industry. While many companies in the travel industry have been facing a major dip due to COVID-19, HotelOnline has diversified and acquired other entities solidifying its position in the African travel industry. 

Run by two Norwegian-born Kenyans, Havar Bauck, and Endre Opdal, the company has announced the acquisition of AfricaBookings – a pioneer in the tech–enabled distribution of African hotels with an impressive inventory of 6000 hotels, and Cloud9 – a savvy travel and adventure app that has gained huge traction in Kenya. 

Since then, the HotelOnline platform which was born in 2015 out of Nairobi’s lack of affordable accommodation next to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport has grown to be a force to reckon within the hospitality industry. Since the first business in September 2014, to …

Local IXPs are a critical piece of technical infrastructure that improves internet access.…

The Mercer 2020 gives the cost of living in African cities giving the most expensive and least expensive cities to live in Africa in its Cost of living survey.

The annual survey ranks cities cost of living based on the prices of goods and services such as rent, food and clothing.

The survey is mostly used by multinational organisations to set remuneration packages for their foreign-based employees.

“The Covid-19 pandemic reminds us that sending and keeping employees on international assignments is a huge responsibility and a difficult task to manage,” said Ilya Bonic, career president and head of Mercer Strategy.

According to the report, in East Africa, Kampala Uganda is the least expensive city to live in while Nairobi Kenya is the most expensive city, Kigali Rwanda takes the second least-expensive city followed by Dar-es-Salaam Tanzania.

Also Read: Cost of living to go up for EAC

The report sampled 40 …

Kenyan perennial entrepreneur Havar Bauck, teaming with several of his investment partners, has ventured into the global multi-billion-dollar cloud kitchen by launching Foodledoodle, the first of such in East Africa, a move expected to change the food and hospitality industry in the region.

The cloud kitchen model of business in a concept that primarily offers a restaurant kitchen and accepts incoming orders only through online ordering systems and offers no dine-in facility.

Also known as dark kitchen, this model is primarily virtual and is reliant on food delivery apps, web portal orders and to generate sales. The global cloud kitchen market size was estimated at 0.65 billion U.S. dollars in 2018 and is forecast to reach 2.63 billon U.S. dollars by 2026.

The cloud kitchen concept

The concept is gaining ground around the globe with established brands in Europe, US, India and some appearing in South Africa. Such leading brands …

By Ms. Carole Agengo, Dr. Ademola Olajide and Dr. Mohamed A. Sheikh

The writers are the Africa Regional Director for HelpAge International; UNFPA Representative, Kenya; and Director General for National Council for Population and Development (NCPD)

Africa is often referred to as the ‘world’s youngest continent.’ This is certainly true when one compares the median age of Africans, currently 19 years, while Europe’s median age is 43 years and Asia’s 32. This reflects the relatively small proportion of older adults – those aged 60 years and above, in the total population. Africa occupies the unique position of being, concurrently, the demographically youngest continent and the world region with the most rapidly growing number of older people.

The onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic with its disproportionate impact on older persons, has heightened the urgency of social protection for the population of older persons.

In Kenya, President Uhuru Kenyatta and the Ministry …

WellPower, an ambitious and savvy new tech startup, is now operating in all areas of Nakuru- 150  Kilometres north of Capital City of Nairobi- and is soon to expand to other parts of Kenya. They have launched an easy to use mobile app where users can now order clean, safe, and affordable drinking water on their phones and from the comfort of their homes.

Through the mobile application, which is available on Google Play Store, users are able to place an order for purified drinking water and select how much water they need between 10lts and 20lts. A WellPower delivery personnel then receives the order and delivers it at their doorstep within minutes.

WellPower launched the delivery service in August 2019 and already have more than 300 repeat customers in Nakuru. The company is founded by four Princeton University students who believe that access to clean, safe, and affordable drinking …

Kenya East Africa’s largest and advanced economy has witnessed how the coronavirus has winged the trajectory of its private sector as the levels of activity and demand in May, as the virus stopped various economic interactions, a Stanbic Kenya survey showed.

According to the survey, the Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) stood at 36.7 higher than April’s 34.8.

Further, if there is reading above 50.0 it signals an improvement in business conditions as in the previous month, while readings below 50.0 show deterioration.

However, according to Regional Economist for East Africa at Stanbic Bank Jibran Qureishi said business conditions have worsened in each month of 2020 so far, with the latest deterioration marked by historical standards, according to information from Capital FM Kenya.

Also Read: Twin shocks hit Kenya’s food security; millions could face starvation

Also, the report noted that “Driving the downturn was a considerable fall in output levels in …

UjuziKilimo, a data-driven agricultural technology company that is driving change in the way farmers access information and manage their food productivity is wary of the effects of Covid-19 to local agricultural production. In an era where food production and supply chains are greatly disrupted by the pandemic, the company is unveiling new structures for helping small agriculture-based businesses in Kenya.

These local small-scale farmers are set to enjoy Kshs18million worth of technical support as part of a social-economic recovery initiative by the agricultural technology solutions provider.  UjuziKilimo has received support from Wadson Ventures, an Africa-focused early-stage venture capital house to facilitate this intervention.

The partnership is moulded in form of a COVID-19 relief partnership agreement. UjuziKilimo Chief Executive officer Brian Bosire says the company will channel the support not only towards COVID-19 but also locust invasion related interventions geared at facilitating swifter agricultural production recovery.

Bosire is also expressing regret …

The effects of Covid-19 have continued being felt in the East African region despite governments developing various interventions to counter them.  Interventions have included the provision of healthcare remedies as well as stimulus plans to bail out communities who have been ravaged by the pandemic. The highlight of the inter-East African relations has been a diplomatic tiff between Kenya and Tanzania that had threatened the livelihoods of the region who depend on the two strongest economies.

The markets in the region have remained slow with the economies expected to get a hit for months to come. Various entities including the World Bank have revised their projections of the growth of the region’s economy. The triple effects of Covid-19, floods and locusts have made the economies of this region suffer greatly. Kenya has also received a negative rating by Moody based on her rising debt.

In this edition, we highlight how …