Author: David Indeje

The Kenyan shilling continued its slide a week before the Monetary policy Committee meets on November 29.  The currency exchanged at 112.11 against the US dollar on November 18, compared to KSh 111.77 per US dollar on November 11. The depreciation was attributed to increased dollar demand from commodity and energy sector importers outweighing the supply of dollars from exporters. Cytonn Investments says “These are the lowest lows that the Kenyan shilling has ever depreciated to against the dollar. On a YTD basis, the shilling has depreciated by 2.8 per cent against the dollar, in comparison to the 7.7 per…

WFP, Corsali and Celo partner for Digital Microwork project in Kibera, Nairobi Young people are using digital skills to gain an edge in preparing for work, finding work and advancing at work, through the Digital Microwork project in Kibra, Nairobi that enables them to learn, work and earn income using cryptocurrencies. The Digital Microwork project is part of the World Food Programme’s Innovation Accelerator initiative, Empact. It has partnered with machine learning company Corsali and blockchain technology firm Celo.  During a three-week pilot phase, 200 unemployed Kenyan youth have been trained to access digital microwork from global platforms on their…

Sub-Saharan Africa (SAA) remains the most expensive region to send diaspora remittance to, according to estimates from the latest World Bank’s Migration and Development Brief. The brief states that the cost of sending money around the world “continued to be too high,” as it averaged 6.4 per cent for a $200 transfer.  The most expensive region was sub-Saharan Africa at 8 per cent while transferring money to South Asia cost 4.6 per cent. “Data reveal that costs tend to be higher when remittances are sent through banks than through digital channels or through money transmitters offering cash-to-cash services,” the World…

Safaricom says its future maintenance and upgrades on its mobile money platform M-Pesa will drastically be reduced to remain successful by driving efficiency, ensuring reliability and improving sustainability.  This year, Safaricom has undertaken over 10 enhancements and maintenance of its systems consequently, complaints from its customers have not stopped. George Njuguna, chief information officer at Safaricom says on the M-Pesa platform, they are working on canary deployment to reduce the risk of deploying a new version that impacts the workload.  Canary deployment is the slow rollout of a new version of an existing application. “You actually can deploy a release…

Privatization of Kenya’s healthcare sector has had a negative impact leading to exclusion, draining public resources, and pushing people into poverty, according to a report from Kenyan human rights organization Hakijamii and New York University’s Center for Human Rights and Global Justice. The report says this has left the public sector ill-equipped to meet the needs of the population pushing many into poverty. “The privatization of healthcare in Kenya has led to high costs for care, failed to deliver on public health priorities, reduced access to care, and pushed people into poverty. As the role of private actors has grown,…

Land prices in Nairobi have shown strong signs of recovery, with satellite and the metropolitan areas recording 2.5 per cent and 0.3 per cent of pre-Covid levels, according to a report by Hass Consult. “The last time towns recorded similar price increases were in the third quarter of 2019 or two years ago,” says Ms Sakina Hassanali, Head of Development Consulting and Research at HassConsult. Sakina noted that in 2020, land prices in satellite towns dropped in tandem with Nairobi suburbs due to disruption to the economy and the accompanying uncertainty. The data is from an analysis of prices in…