Author: Otiato Guguyu
US, Europe diaspora dollars falls for three consecutive months
Kenyans in America, Europe and Australia cut support for their relatives back home slashing diaspora remittances by a 3.1 percent to Kes183.76 billion ($1.336 billion) in the four months to April from Kes189.68 billion ($1.379 billion) at the same stage last year. Remittances fell for the third straight months in April by 9.8 percent to Kes44.1 billion ($320.3 mil-lion) from Kes48.8 billion ($355.04 mil-lion) in April 2021 led by a drop in America, Canada, UK, Netherlands, Sweden, France, Norway, Belgium and Australia. Rising cost of living abroad has hit the amounts being sent home even as geopolitical instability has also affected Kenyans living abroad in…
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Coop Bank first quarter profit up on double-digit customer loan growth
A double digit loan growth to the private sector has handed Cooperative Bank a five percent jump in net profits to Kes6.1 billion in the three months to March this year up from Kes5.8 billion in a similar period last year. Coop Bank saw customer loans jump 11 percent to Kes360.1 billion up from a growth of 8 percent in a similar period last year. Increased private sector loans saw the bank earn Kes10 billion in interest income up from Kes8.9 billion last year. The lender also made extra money from fees and commission on loans of Kes3.3 billion up from Kes2.5 billion in the…
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Ruto cuts Privatisation Commission budget ahead of parastatal fire sale
Privatization Commission CEO Joseph Koskey says it will cost Kenya about Kes1.3 billion to privatize three parastatals a pointer the country may need three times as much resources to sell the 10 state companies earmarked for privatization. The privatization boss said the costs, including transaction advisory, stakeholder engagements, legal expenses, general consultancy and PR consultancy, branding have been estimated based on the cost of privatizing Safaricom at Kes1.09 billion and Kengen at Kes423.8 million. He, however, said the government has not allocated the commission the funds for the privatization process indicating President William Ruto may not be keen on using the commission to transact the…
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Maritime Authority seeks fresh talent amid 36 percent revenue loss
Kenya Maritime Authority (KMA) revenues declined 36 percent last year on slower traffic of ships docking at the Port of Mombasa, even as the authority plans on doubling its workforce. KMA acting director general John Omingo told the National Assembly Public Investments Committee on Commercial Affairs and Energy Chaired by Hon. David Pkosing (Pokot South), their budget dropped from Kes1.2 billion to Kes831.2 million on slower collections from reduced ship traffic. The authority gets 99 percent of its income charging levies on ship inspections and trainings and has been operating with 111 staff members, which is half of the 242 approved establishment workforce. KMA said they have been…
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Kenyan banking industry on edge as cash reserves decrease
While American banks started collapsing when the Federal Reserve started raising rates, Kenyan lenders have mostly remained stable since the Central Bank Rate (CBR) was hiked 250 basis points over the last one year, but cracks are beginning to show. Lenders liquidity position has dipped to 49.9 percent in the three months this year, from 50.8 percent at the end of December according to the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) first quarter credit survey. CBK’s Banking Supervision report also shows that commercial banks hit record high borrowing of Kes147 billion from CBK, the lender of last resort to maintain liquidity requirements taking up about Kes40…
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Electronic tax stamps printer out to set record straight
SICPA the supplier of the Excisable Goods Management System (EGMS) has come out to defend itself against allegations of corruption in other jurisdictions, high cost of stamps and the technical details of its operations in the country over the last ten years. The securities printer which won a contract a Kes17 billion contract to install the system estimated to collect billions of shillings, has been accused by opposition MP Opiyo Wandayi for making Kes64 billion based on collections minus the cost of stamps. In a statement to the press, SICPA denied that it made Kes64 billion profit in five years but said only KRA are…
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Men who go sterile for their women
The other day through an idle drive NyarSindo asked me my opinions about vasectomy. I told her my grandfathers would be shuddering if they would even hear her contemplate ending the long line of Manyala’s, risking the link onto the next generation. Vasectomy is not popular in Kenya, with just about 557 Kenyan men who walked into the doctors last year and had the procedure, according to the Economic survey. The lower uptake is mainly blamed on misconceptions about whether it is reversible or not, and cultural significance of a man’s manhood. After, I asserted how as a custodian of our culture, I would not…
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