Author: David Indeje

African digital music platform Mdundo’s listing on Nasdaq First North Growth Market Denmark was oversubscribed by 111 percent, the company said in a statement. It received subscriptions from 2,914 investors for a total of 8,428,731 shares.  “The company’s offering of up to 4,000,000 new shares at an offer price of DKK 10.0 per share was, thus, fully subscribed, which gives Mdundo.com gross proceeds of DKK 40.0 million and a market value of DKK 102.0 million,” Mdundo said in the statement. Mdundo is a music service with over 40 Danish business angels as investors, with high growth focusing on the growing…

Men to Get 4 Months Paid Parental Leave Mobile communications company Vodacom Group says all its employees, regardless of their gender and sexual orientation, would be offered 16 weeks (four months) of fully paid parental leave. “The move is derived from Vodacom’s new leave policy, which is designed to support families by giving every parent the opportunity to have more time with children new to their family. “Under the new leave policy, employees will also be able to phase their return from parental leave by working the equivalent of a 30-hour week at full pay for a further two months,”…

The Central Bank has floated 15-year and 20-year Treasury Bonds worth KSh 50 Billion to finance its development projects. The bonds would be auctioned on Wednesday, 16th September 2020. CBK says the Bonds may be re-opened at a future date.  Secondary trading of these instruments, in multiples of KSh 50,000.00, will commence on Tuesday, 22nd September 2020. “We anticipate secondary market activity to be crowded at the short-end of the curve,” according to Genghis Capital. On the other hand, NCBA Research Analysts state that the yield curve could be more sticky as liquidity conditions normalize. For instance, the week ending…

Kenyans in diaspora sent home $277 million (KSh29.9 billion) in July, however, this was a Ksh 1.2 billion decline. In June they sent $288.5 million (KSh31.2 billion). “Remittance inflows remained strong in July 2020 amounting to $277 million compared to $225 million in July 2019 and $288.5 million in June 2020, in line with seasonal factors,” Central Bank of Kenya said in its Weekly Bulletin. Cumulative inflows in the 12 months to July totalled to $2.862 billion (KSh309 billion) compared to $2.778 billion (KSh300 billion) in the 12 months to July 2019, representing a three percent increase. During the period,…

Kenya’s unemployment rate hit 10.4 percent in the second quarter from 4.90 percent recorded previously, according to the statistics agency. According to the quarter two Labour Force Report by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), the number of those unemployed increased to 4,637,164 between April and June compared to 2,329,176 in the same period last year. The figures are evidence of the damage the coronavirus has done to the fragile economy. The government’s report Tuesday, on the effects of COVID-19 on interactions between social and economic factors conducted between 30th May and 6th June 2020: “The proportion of individuals…

Kenyan Government is being told to reject proposals being made by the U.S. to expand the plastics industry footprint across Africa. “Africa is at the forefront of the war on plastics, with 34 out of 54 countries having adopted some regulation to phase out single-use plastic,” said Fredrick Njehu, Greenpeace Africa Senior Political Advisor.  “The Kenyan government should not backslide on the progress made in its plastic-free ambitions by folding to pressure from fossil fuel giants, because it stands to derail the progress made across the entire continent.”  According to documents obtained by Greenpeace, the American Chemistry Council has lobbied…