Busy week didn’t give you time to catch up with all of the interesting news items? Relax, HerBusiness will be summarizing all these things that made the news every week.
EAC continues to break hearts
Our hope was that one day people in Lagos and Jo’burg would speak Swahili, because of the East African Community. It increasingly looks like it won’t amount to anything. After talks that issues among countries will be resolves, now Chris Kiptoo says, “countries outside EAC are more competitive in our markets”. He is Principal Secretary for Trade. He said this because the market share for a lot of products traded within the region are now dominated by China and India. Kenya is also faced by the fact that its neighbours are building their capacities and no longer Buy Kenyan. Pakistan, not Uganda, became Kenya’s biggest trading partner in 2017.
Micro-Finance banks could cut back on loans
Entrepreneurs in Kenya will be interested to know that the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) issued recommendations to Micro-Finance banks, this past week. Story of the Kenyan regulator and the finance industry. Micro-Finance institutions are the biggest lenders to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in the country. CBK wants to increase their capital ratios to improve their resilience. This is the minimum capital held by a bank against its risk. You are invited, by the CBK, to have an input by end of March. Before the suggestion is incorporated to the Microfinance Bill 2018.
Mother-To-Child-Transmission down
The United Nations Joint Aids programme (UNAIDS) released findings that HIV infections among children in reducing across Eastern and Southern Africa, where the research was focused. New infections have reduced by 56%. In Kenya they have reduced from 14,905 in 2010 to 6, 091 in 2016, a 60% drop. Kisii, Nyamira and Migori counties are responsible for most of this. Unfortunately, Kitui, Kwale, Kilifi, Marsabit, Garissa, Mandera and Lamu counties saw new HIV infections rise. UNAIDS recommended improvements in early infant diagnosis and access to ART among pregnant women in Kenya – read this
Kenya’s economic projected to enjoy some growth… some
The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) and Oxford Economics unveiled another Economic Insight for Africa study. It is now predicted that Kenya’s economy will grow some 5.7% in Q1 of 2018. ICAEW Director for the Middle East, Africa and South Asia, Michael Armstrong said, “The period of political uncertainty that plagued Kenya’s economy is gradually fading and this bodes well for the country’s economic prospects.” A poor country growing in single digits.
Barclays to change name
Barclays Group will change its name to Absa Group should it gets its way with regulators. This is after the parent company sold part of its stake. Barclays bank also announced that its revenues for the year ended 31st December, 2017 had taken a hit. The bank’s MD, Jeremy Awori cited the interest caps for the “compressed margins.” Since you would like to know, loans and advances remained flat while uptake of Government securities went up.
World Cup in Kenya
The World Cup Trophy is on a 51- country tour ahead of the tournament in Russia, this June. For the third time, Kenya was part of the tour and it was well received by the President and a host of sports officials – who gave the mandatory lip service on how they will improve local sports, football, etc. Neither footballers nor ex-footballers in Kenya headlined event. But the public was given the opportunity to line up and view or take a photo with the trophy at the KICC. Who needs cheap grassroots sports infrastructure when you’ve got one-off events of this magnitude?
M-Pesa now enabled on Google Playstore
Another win for financial inclusion? Through DOCOMO Digital, an alternative payment enabler, you can now purchase apps and services on Google Playstore, via M-Pesa. It’s M-Pesa Xpress payments, to be pedantic, and the normal transaction charges apply. Check out the steps involved here!
