Author: David Indeje

Kenya’s services activity continued to pick up pace in August with output and new orders rising solidly, but continued to contract as firms reported job losses, according to a private survey. “Sentiment improved for the first time since February, but remained relatively weak,” the IHS Markit Services PMI said on Thursday recording a second straight month of growth in the Kenyan private sector, with output and new orders rising as the economy gradually opens up. The Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) fell to 53 in August 2020 from 54.2 in July.  Despite falling from 54.2 in July, the index suggested that…

“Poacher” a Kenyan/British short film directed by Tom Whitworth will debut on Netflix on September 30. “It’s been a 4-year journey and we are enormously proud to announce the launch of ‘Poacher’, our short award-winning Kenyan crime thriller, exclusively available on Netflix from 30th September,” Tom Whitworth wrote. https://twitter.com/kenyafilmcomm/status/1301409213483278338?s=20 The 28-minute short film is based on the human cost of those involved in conservation. Shot in Tsavo National Park, Poacher tells the story of Mutua, a desperate farmer who runs into trouble after he steals a stash of blood ivory from a gang of international terrorists.  The cast in the…

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,…