Author: David Indeje

The rise of the highly contagious Delta variant has forced Kenya to indefinitely extend Covid-19 containment measures. The latest move dents hopes of opening up and returning to pre-pandemic life. Kenya’s Ministry of Health extended the nationwide daily 10 pm to 4 am curfew indefinitely. “The hours of the ongoing national curfew continue across the country from 10 pm to 4 am across the country. This applies now to the counties in the lake region as well,” Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said. In June, the government revised curfew hours for  13 counties in the Western region from 10pm to…

Shareholders of Safaricom Plc, Kenya’s largest telco, have approved a proposal to create an operating company in Ethiopia. With the approval, Safaricom will move ahead to create an operating company incorporated in Ethiopia with Safaricom as a majority shareholder commanding a 55.7 per cent stake in the entity. In addition to Safaricom, the partnership includes: Vodacom Group; Vodafone Group; Sumitomo Corporation – one of the largest international trading and business investment companies; and CDC Group – the UK’s development finance institution and impact investor. Shareholders of the company cleared the proposal, during the company’s Annual General Meeting held July 30th…

East African Breweries Limited (EABL) has reported a one per cent drop in net profit for the year ended 30th June 2021,  due to cost inflation, tax and foreign exchange impact. The brewers’ profit before tax jumped two per cent to KSh10.9 billion during the year. Group Managing Director and chief executive Jane Karuku said through fiscal 2021, the pandemic continued to impact the business negatively across East Africa due to the restrictions in Kenya and Uganda and the general decline in disposable incomes in the region. Net cash from operating activities was up 337 per cent to KSh14.6 billion,…

Kenya’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC)  says there is adequate liquidity in the financial system to support growth in the near term. This means the central bank is likely to keep the benchmark interest rates unchanged at 7.00 per cent. “Lowering the rate is to achieve a certain objective. There is a lot of liquidity in the system. What will be the purpose of lowering the rate? Dr Patrick Njoroge said Thursday. “In terms of liquidity management, at the end of June and beginning of July,…We did have a huge influx of liquidity. A lot of these was used to make…

Samsung Electronics Co Ltd says it will focus on its new flagship smartphones by ‘mainstreaming the foldable category’. Samsung plans to unveil its next flagship foldable smartphone, Galaxy Z Fold and Z Flip lines, on Aug. 11 However, it says the global shortage of non-memory chips still poses a risk to forecasts, and the uncertainties related to COVID-19  for both TV and Digital Appliances businesses.   “For the second half, market conditions are expected to be favourable for the component business,” Samsung said in a statement. “Memory demand will likely be buoyed by new smartphone model launches, with wider 5G availability…

The Central Bank of Kenya on Wednesday left the benchmark interest rate unchanged at 7 per cent for the ninth time. However, it said it stands ready to take additional measures in order to support the economy hit by the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. “The Committee noted that inflation expectations remained well anchored within the target range, and the economy continued to operate below its potential level,” said Dr Patrick Njoroge in an emailed statement on the decisions taken by the central bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC). The hold in the benchmark lending rate was largely in line with broad market…