Author: David Indeje

Kenya’s current account deficit for the 12 months to November narrowed compared to a year earlier, helped by diaspora remittances and earnings from exports. Latest Central Bank of Kenya data shows that the current account deficit as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) stood at 4.7 per cent to 4.7 percent of GDP in the year to November 2020 compared to 5.4 percent of GDP in the year to November 2019. Central bank said the trade deficit narrowed due to improvement was attributed to savings from oil imports, resilient earnings from exports and remittances. Current Account is the sum…

Kenya’s Ministry of Health Friday said it will roll out online system to authenticate and verify COVID-19 certificates commencing  Monday, January 11th.  The Ministry emphasized that no traveler will leave the country without verification of their certificate using the TT (Trusted Traveler) process.   The Travel Pass Initiative (TPI) is a framework for passengers, testing facilities and airlines to capture and share testing and vaccine requirements with integrity.  Consequently, no laboratory is allowed to issue COVID-19 certificates without TT codes from 9th January 2021.   “I, therefore, wish to notify travelers to first visit an authorized laboratory to take an RT PCR COVID – 19 test and be issued…

DigiTruck achieves milestone of training 1,500 Youth in 10 Counties in 1st Year  Chinese technology firm, Huawei, pledged to support its DigiTruck, a digital skill training project to rural communities in Kenya through mobile digital classrooms, for a 2nd year.  In its first year, the all solar-powered, mobile classrooms have been used to train more than 1,500 youth on digital skills across 13 locations in 10 Counties.  The announcement was made in Kitui to commence four weeks of digital skills training for youth helping them do business and work online.   Cabinet Secretary for ICT, Innovation and Youth Affairs, Joe Mucheru presided over the…

The Co-operative Bank of Kenya on Friday issued a profit warning for its full year financial results, saying earnings were being hit loan loss provisions and losses from its South Sudan operations.  “The board of directors of Co-op Bank wishes to announce that the bank’s full year earnings for the 2020 financial year are projected to be materially lower than the earnings reported for the same period in 2019,” the bank disclosed in line with regulations. “As expected, loan loss provisions have been much higher than in the previous year in appreciation of the challenges that the businesses and households continue to…

The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) raised KSh 13, 840.6 Million from the weekly Treasury Bills Auction held on Thursday, an undersubscription of 65.7%.  On behalf of the National Treasury, it had targeted KSh 24 Billion from the domestic market.  Investors opted for the longer-term KSh 10 Billion 364 days Treasury Bill where bids worth KSh 10.02 Billion was received and a similar amount accepted by CBK, representing an oversubscription of 100.21%.  The 182-day Treasury Bill, worth KSh 10 Billion received bids worth KSh 4,999.7 Million, a performance of 50% after the CBK accepted KSh 3.1 Billion.  Debt service in January amounts to Ksh.174.7 billion, a 137.3% increase over debt service in December 2020. This…

Users of messaging platform WhatsApp are required to agree to share their personal information with Facebook according to new terms and conditions.  This means that the WhatsApp, a Facebook-owned chat app users will have to accept, or stop using the end-to-end encrypted chat app.  “As part of the Facebook Companies, WhatsApp receives information from, and shares information with, the other Facebook Companies,” WhatsApp privacy policy, updated stated.  “We may use the information we receive from them, and they may use the information we share with them, to help operate, provide, improve, understand, customize, support, and market our Services and their offerings,…