Didn’t have time to catch up with all of the week’s news stories? Relax, follow Herbusiness summary and commentary of the most interesting things that made the news headlines in Kenya.
HerBusiness makes top 10 ranking
Thanks to you, our reader. HerBusiness has been listed 6th in the top 10 “Black Women Magazines and Ezines to Follow in 2018.” The list recognizes content that empowers and educates women. It is based on quality of posts, plus Google reputation and search ranking; among other things. The list was complied by Feedspot, which tracks websites worldwide.
The top 10 sites are drawn from all over. New York, London, Los Angeles and others; plus Nairobi!!! Check it out.
Help us finish 2018 even better by letting us know, through a comment or our social media pages, more of what you would like to see.
Nyeri Flights to Nairobi
Nyeri County launched direct flights to Nairobi this week. You will be able to take off from Nyaribo Airstrip at 6.30am to Wilson Airport. This development is expected to be a boon to business and tourism. The trip will only take 25 minutes by air, compared to 3hrs by road. Nyeri Governor, Mutahi Kahiga expressed his pride at the launch. He hoped daily trips will increase to 2, with help. “We are calling upon the national government to help equip the airstrip into a modern facility of higher standards.” Looks like I will vote to keep devolution as it is, if the referendum goes ahead.
Government commitment to Counties
More grassroots development. The Ministry of Education outlined a plan to set up a national polytechnic in every county. Good. The Ministry will also realize a technical college in every constituency if the plan is effected. All this was read from an Amina Mohamed, Education secretary, speech. She said, “Every national polytechnic will have at least 10,000 trainees. We want to ensure the minimum student population in technical schools is 5 million by 2020.” This strategy is expected to bridge the skill gap and make Kenya more competitive.
NSE joins WFE
The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) was finally admitted to the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE). WFE is a stock exchanges association, which now has 70 members. NSE was admitted alongside London Stock Exchange Group, Boursa Kuwait, Tunis Stock Exchange, Multi-Commodity Exchange of India and, China Securities Depository and Clearing Corporation. WFE CEO, Nandini Sukumar revealed that the association would expand its focus to include issues of emerging markets, SMEs, sustainability plus more.
Kenyan banks
Why are banks always the antagonists? Anyway, enough time has passed for the interest rate cap to reflect on Kenyan banks financial statements. You will be impressed to know that some have made a world top 20 list on utilizing their assets. The Financial Times (UK paper) listed 3 Kenyan banks in a report of banks with the best returns on assets (ROA). Equity bank (11th, 5.3%), KCB (14th, 4.5%) and Co-operative Bank (17th, 4.2%) showed the interest rate cap is not that big of a hindrance to their bottomlines. Kenyan banks successfully responded, to the cap, by cost reduction. Some of the measures taken included lay-offs, freezing hires and branch closures.
You should check our article on important ratios for small business owners. Who knows? You could live the bank life.
Poverty reducing in Kenya?
If the numbers are reliable (I don’t think…), around 9 million Kenyans escaped poverty between 2005 and 2016. This reduced the portion of poor people in Kenya from 46.8% to 36.1%. The revelation came from the Kenya Gender and Poverty Assessment 2015/16 report, by World Bank. Much of the gains came from reduction of rural poverty. The report states that urban poverty figures “stagnated.” Also, “Kenya’s poverty rate is roughly triple the average for lower-middle-income countries.” All of this could be seen in whatever light. For one, World Bank uses a very low and much criticized poverty cut off rate of around $1 to $2 (sh.100 to sh.200) spent in a day. How about they take that up to $5 (sh.500) then we can see how things really are.
No more nursery graduations
This is the opportunity to state that private education is immoral. Enough of that. Nairobi County has moved to save parents from unscrupulous pre-primary schools. Parents will no longer be blackmailed to pay for pre-primary graduation. This is in line with Nairobi’s policy to provide free Early Childhood and Development Education (ECDE).
No more Kindergarten graduations in Nairobi County. Na vile watoto wanapenda hizo sherehe! pic.twitter.com/7WoEMwuTWl
— erick kombo (@erickkombo) October 9, 2018
The County spends sh.3,850 per child. There are 13,000 children in the 229 ECDE institutions in Nairobi.