Author: David Indeje

Facebook rolled out Marketplace, a feature that allows users to discover, buy, and sell items on its platforms in Kenya.  According to Facebook, users will easily buy and sell things, especially at a time when businesses have been adversely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.  Mercy Ndegwa, Facebook Head of Public Policy for East & Horn of Africa said the organisation is optimistic that the product will complement the growing e-commerce market.  “We had already seen people buying and selling with each other on Facebook, so we decided to launch Facebook Marketplace; a safe and convenient destination in the Facebook app…

Nairobi is the leading city across Africa for online food delivery, followed by Casablanca (Morocco), Lagos (Nigeria) Kampala (Uganda), and Abidjan (Ivory Coast) according to the latest Kenya Food Index 2020. According to Jumia, food delivery volumes between March and August 2020 witnessed a surge due to the Covid-19 pandemic. “Home delivery from restaurants & supermarkets is growing fast, as more consumers are choosing to order from home or the office and want to avoid crowds,” said Jumia CEO Sam Chappatte. The report found out that the enhanced availability of popular vendors and increased mobile and internet penetration in the…

Safaricom’s Fuliza loan book surged to Ksh 176 billion six months to June compared with Ksh 81 billion in 2019, according to its recent Sustainable Business Report. According to the report, Kenyans borrowed KSh245 billion in the 2020 Financial Year, compared to KSh29 billion borrowed a year earlier. The total number of transactions in the period under review hit 393 million compared to 46.4 million registered in 2019. “The traction that the popular facility had from its launch in January 2019 continued through the period under review, with strong growth in both numbers of customers and volumes of disbursements,” reads…

COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the need to tap into innovation, new technologies, and cost efficiencies accelerating the digital transformation journey across various sectors. “We should look for the opportunities that this crisis has presented to us, both us as leaders, and also as consumers,” said Mrs. Mary Wangari Wamae Equity Group Executive Director of the Groups’ Subsidiaries at Leading Women in Banking and Finance e-conference hosted by the Kenya Bankers Association. According to Wamae, the COVID-19 pandemic started as a health crisis and because of the measures that had to be taken, it led to an economic crisis.   “The impact…

The Kenyan economy plunged at an unprecedented rate in the second quarter of the year as Covid-19 pandemic hit the service sector. The gross domestic product, the economy’s total output of goods and services, fell at a rate of 5.7%, compared with growth of 4.9% in the three months through March and expansion of 5.3% in the same period a year earlier, the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics. “Although Kenya was somehow spared the severe effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in the first quarter of 2020, the country bore the brunt of the disease in the second quarter of 2020.”…

The National Treasury raised Ksh.60 billion from October’s 20-year and 25-year-opened bonds from its domestic market. Investors made bids worth to Ksh.69.1 billion against a pre-advertised offer of Ksh.50 billion. The 25-year bond sale saw bids worth Ksh.46 billion with the shorter 20 year bond with 10.6 years to maturity fetching bids amounting to Ksh.23.2 billion. The improved appetite resonates with NCBA Market Analysts who had earlier in the week said the issue was likely to receive fair interest from the public considering the persistent dearth of alternatives and improved liquidity partly from maturing papers. “While FXD1/2011/20 (10.6yrs to maturity)…