Author: Muindi

The National Bank of Rwanda (NBR) has granted Flutterwave, a leading African payments technology company, its Electronic Money Issuer and Remittance Licenses. This will enable the company to grow its business in East Africa. The licenses allow Flutterwave to provide services such as money deposit and withdrawal, electronic funds transfer, and remittance services for inbound and outbound transactions to the 13.46 million Rwandans living and working in the country. According to Rwanda’s National Institute of Statistics, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) comprise about 97% of businesses and contribute almost 55% to Rwanda’s GDP. Flutterwave will offer various products in…

KCB Group PLC announced a 19.5 per cent growth in net profit at Sh40.8 billion for the fiscal year ending December 2022 from Sh34.2 billion reported in 2021. The lender attributed the sterling performance to higher funded and non-funded income streams. Non-funded income grew 39.8 per cent, mainly from trade finance income, lending fees and commissions. KCB Group CEO Paul Russo attributed the solid performance to a sound business strategy anchored on customer obsession, sharper execution, and productive organizational culture. “The business benefited from a vibrant core banking business, growth of new business lines and accelerated digital transformation to post…

South Africa’s Standard Bank is on a quest to become the third-largest bank in Kenya through acquisitions as part of its growth strategy. “We have aspirations to be a top three bank in Kenya,” East Africa Regional Chief Executive Patrick Mweheire told Bloomberg. “Number six is not acceptable. Within 12 months, we would have identified and would have started having negotiations with someone,” he said. Currently, the lender operates in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. It has a representative office in Ethiopia. The Johannesburg-based Standard Bank will also be seeking a full license in Ethiopia. According…

In a new episode of African Voices Playmakers, a special edition of CNN’s African Voices Changemakers, Larry Madowo meets former and current African NBA basketball players scoring big for their teams and assisting their communities. Masai Ujiri, born and raised in Nigeria, founded the Giants of Africa (GOA) organisation to educate and enrich the lives of African youth. He explains, “I think there’s so much talent in Africa that the more eyes we get on us, the more we are going to have these talents coming out of different places.” As president of the Toronto Raptors, Ujiri has scouted and…

The Nairobi Securities Exchange’s (NSE) total equity market capitalisation dropped to a six-year low of KSh1.79 trillion on Tuesday. Safaricom, Equity Group, EABL and KCB Group losses mainly drove the equities market performance during the day. https://twitter.com/RufasKe/status/1635635899634466816?s=20 Tuesday, a total of 5,913,600 shares in 1,264 deals, corresponding to a market value of Ksh 141,537,020.00, were traded compared with Monday’s trading day, which translates to a 3% decline in volume, 11% improvement in turnover, and 11% improvement in deals. “The downward trajectory of the Kenyan equities market was mainly attributable to capital flight as foreign investors moved to developed markets with the Fed…

Absa Bank Kenya reported a KSh14.6 billion net profit for the year ended December 31, 2022. This was a 34 per cent growth compared to the KSh10.6 billion posted in 2021. The improved performance was attributed to sustained double-digit growth across all business segments as the Bank accelerated lending to Small and Medium Sized Enterprises(SMEs). Customer loans grew by 21 per cent to KSh284 billion, while customer deposits rose by 13 per cent to KSh304 billion. Total revenues rose 25 per cent to KSh45.9 billion, driven by a 28 per cent growth in net interest income to KSh32.3 billion. “We…