Author: David Indeje

Give initiative aims to teach, share creative skills and ideas to underprivileged youth in communities to gain the much needed creative skills. Ogilvy Africa, the most awarded creative agency in Africa, has launched Give Time, an initiative which aims to support the creative talents and help underprivileged youth in communities to gain the much needed creative skills. The initiative will comprise of approaches which include Give Time and Give Space. Through Give Time, Ogilvy staff will dedicate time to teach and share creative skills and ideas with students. This will include areas such as creative writing, drawing and photography. On…

East African Breweries Limited (EABL) registered a 33% growth in half-year net earnings to hit KSh6.61 billion, driven by strong performance across all segments and markets. Net sales grew 13% to Kshs 41.6 billion. Growth was broad-based across segments and regions, as the business benefitted from lapping a weak half following the presidential election in Kenya. Kenya and Uganda witnessed net sales increase by 12% and Tanzania up to 26%. The beer segment grew 12%, driven by Senator Keg performance in Kenya, improved mix in Uganda and continued strong delivery of Serengeti in Tanzania. Spirits grew 16% on the back of strong…

Manufacturers, retailers, and suppliers have voluntarily signed up to the Code of Practice to guide Prompt Payment making it difficult for Kenya’s retail sector to engage in unfair trading practices. This is a relief for the suppliers who in the past have had to content from payment delays and defaults. The rules, proposed by the Ministry of Industry and Trade in collaboration with stakeholders, cut the average payment period in the retail sector to 30 days from the current 180 to 240. Majority of the stakeholders include the Association of Suppliers of Kenya, the Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) and…

Tullow Oil plc (Tullow) targets to start transferring 2,000 barrels of crude oil from Turkana to Mombasa starting April. “This is expected to increase to 2,000 bopd from April 2019. Currently, there are 60,000 barrels of oil stored in Mombasa with a maiden lifting expected in the first half of 2019,” said the UK Based Oil company in its trading statement and operational update issued Wednesday. It stated that the transfer of stored crude oil from Turkana to Mombasa by road continues as part of the Early Oil Pilot Scheme with an average of eight trucks being dispatched every two…

Moody’s Investors Service has downgraded Kenya’s sovereign creditworthiness to a negative rating of B2 stable due to rising liquidity risk, increased external vulnerability and higher reliance on commercial external debt. In its “Sovereigns — Sub-Saharan Africa: 2019 outlook, it states that Kenya “will likely rely on cuts to capital expenditures rather than reducing recurrent expenditures or increasing revenue mobilization to achieve their fiscal targets.” This is similar to 2018 where the firm maintained Kenya’s credit scores at B2 stable after putting its earlier score of B1 on downgrade review in October 2017. In December 2018, the firm said Kenya’s debt…

Kenyan legislator has made a proposal that would allow SMEs and unsecured individual borrowers to negotiate risk-based interest rates above the normal cap. Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria in a proposal to the speaker of the National Assembly Justin Muturi,  says the risk negotiation window should be up to 6% above the lending cap for SMEs. “Unsecured individual customers should negotiate pricing based on their risk profile and on a willing buyer, willing seller basis,” Kuria proposes in a letter dated 14 January 2019. “The amendment will go a long way to free credit to the SMEs, discourage government borrowing…