Author: Otiato Guguyu

Peter Ndegwa
CorporateNews
Otiato Guguyu

Safaricom turns to the internet as profits drop

Safaricom wants to be the biggest internet provider in the country to diversify from its slowing voice, message and mobile money business, by targeting one million connections of homes and business and backing the government project to link schools and hospitals to fiber infrastructure. The telco currently has 250,000 homes linked to their fiber network, 205 fifth generation (5G) sites in 23 counties and has now placed a bid in the governments procurement of laying over 100,000 kilometers of fibre optic cables across Kenya and establishment of digital village smart hubs and studios in each of the country’s 1450 wards. The telco boss Peter Ndegwa…

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I&M Bank
CorporateNews
Otiato Guguyu

Falling shilling pushes I&M to hold merger fees in dollars

I&M Bank want shareholders to approve conversion of their buyout kitty to US dollars to beat market volatility since merger and acquisition transactions are conducted in greenback. The lender told shareholders it needed approvals for setting aside not more than $75 million in a kitty created seven year ago to undertake an acquisition, a merger, enter into a joint venture agreement or set up a new (greenfield) ventures. Corporates and individuals are stocking up dollars to beat the depreciation of the Kenyan shilling that has dropped 28.4 percent over the last two years after the country’s debt became unstainable draining dollar reserves to make payments. The…

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KCB Govt securities
EconomyNews
Otiato Guguyu

Banks exposure to GoK debt cut to a decade low

Local Kenyan lenders are holding the smallest portion of state debt in almost ten years as banks dump government securities on rate hikes, heightened risk of default and the possibility of restructuring. Central bank data shows the portion of domestic debt held by banks stood at 45.64 percent in April down from 54.8 percent in June 2020.   The last time banks held less than 50 percent of domestic debt was 49.4 percent in March 2014, and have been accumulating risk free state debt over the decade, (especially during the rate cap era) to a high of 57.8 percent in July 2015. Kenyan banks hold Kes2…

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Only fans
FeaturedNews
Otiato Guguyu

The bitten apple

The first time I saw something pornographic, it was an old magazine called Life Seen, secretly passed around the boys dormitory as we hankered over starred genitals like Amish boys seeing a woman’s bare limb.  It was impersonal, black and white newspaper print with a coloured insert at the middle, where the publisher tried to blur out the graphic imagery. One time during holiday recess we dared to a cybercafé to see more graphic and colored images on the internet. Those days you paid Kes10 a minute and spent it looking at pixelated images buffer for ages.  So we pooled our ten bobs together, and…

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EconomyNews
Otiato Guguyu

Ruto hits poor making Sh1400 daily with turnover tax

Kenya’s smallest businesses making about Kes1,400 a day or Kes500,000 a year will now be required to pay turnover tax after the Kenya Kwanza government unveiled the regimes’ first money bill that seeks to raise additional Kes300 billion in new taxes. In the new Finance Bill 2023, Treasury wants to bring down the threshold for turnover tax from Kes1 million to Kes500,000. The tax will now be levied or the small businesses who make up to Kes15 million a year down from Kes50 million. This means the bodaboda and mama mbogas in the informal sector who were not under the taxman’s radar will now be…

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Tea Kenya
News
Otiato Guguyu

Kenya economic growth halves on poor agriculture output

Maize, wheat milk output fell last year dragging down agriculture growth for the second consecutive year and reducing Kenya’s number one economic sector to just 21.2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). Latest Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) data shows the economy grew by 4.8 percent in 2022, down from 7.6 percent with only four sectors expanding by double digits compared to seven in 2021.  Maize was the most affected, dropping 34 percent to 150,800 tonnes from 228,400 metric tonnes while marketed wheat dropped by 60,000 tonnes and milk by 47.6 million liters.  Tea production took a marginal hit while coffee, sugarcane and cotton…

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Kenya exports
NewsPolitics
Otiato Guguyu

The fog of war over Kenya’s top export

When I first formed my memories of football in 1994, there was hardly any players of African origins advancing beyond the second round of the World Cup. Today, even though Africa still gets kicked out early, the sons of the soil proceed behind foreign banners. In the just concluded World Cup in Qatar, fourteen teams had at least one player of African origin in their squad. It underscores both a success of the neoliberal free movement of goods, services and labour across borders and the inbuilt structural problem that does not work in favour of Africa. While African players dominate European leagues and world cup teams, no African team…

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