Author: Muindi

On-demand delivery platform Glovo, says it will double its existing investment in Africa to $59.3 million over the next 12 months. Glovo co-founder Sacha Michaud said: “Our vision is to give everyone easy access to anything in their city and our platform is at its best when it is connecting users and businesses, most of which are local restaurants and independent stores. “We believe there’s a huge opportunity in these countries to help accelerate digitalisation and meet the rising demand for online shopping and deliveries, and we are working hand-in-hand with our local partners to market and deliver their goods…

China’s smartphone maker, OPPO, on Monday launched its Reno6 5G in the Kenyan market currently available for pre-order. The OPPO Reno6 Pro 5G is powered by MediaTek’s flagship Dimensity 1200 system-on-chip, paired with up to 12GB RAM and 256GB on-board storage.  Complementing the OPPO Reno6 Pro 5G performance is the ColorOS 11.3 user interface.  Based on the Android 11 operating system for a personalised experience. The smartphone supports 5G network connectivity.  https://twitter.com/OPPOKenya/status/1434910276957134848?s=20 Battery The OPPO Reno6 Pro 5G ships with a 4,500mAh battery and the company’s USB-C-based 65W fast charger. “As Kenya becomes the second African country to roll out…

Kenya’s private sector activity continued its upward trend and reached a new high attributed to increased demand and new hirings in August. The Markit Stanbic Bank Kenya Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) rose to 51.1 in August from 50.6 in July.  Readings above 50.0 signal an improvement in business conditions on the previous month, while readings below 50.0 show a deterioration. “The pace of the recovery in business conditions accelerated driven by higher levels of demand and employment,” said Kuria Kamau, fixed income and currency strategist at Stanbic Bank. “Firms were, however, unable to raise their output to meet all the…

Kenya’s foreign exchange reserves fell by $203 million to $8.986 billion as of August 26 from $9.189 billion as of August 19. According to the Central Bank of Kenya’s  (CBK) weekly statistical bulletin, the foreign currency reserves are sufficient to cover 5.49 months of imports, above the bank’s statutory requirement of at least 4 months of import cover.  The decline is attributed to external loans interest payments. The payments have maintained ample liquidity in the money markets with the average inter-bank rate standing at 3.36 per cent as of August 31 with the CBK mopping up Ksh 60 billion that…

Hong Kong-listed apparel brand Giordano has continued to expand its physical stores in Kenya. The firm which opened its first store in Kenya in 2020 says its new franchise store at Mombasa’s City Mall is the first outside Nairobi and its fourth. “Our previous three stores were all part of our local partners’ shop-in-shop offering, and we are both pleased and excited that our franchisee is sufficiently satisfied with Giordano’s performance to commit to a dedicated store for our brand,” said Mr Mark Loynd, executive director and head of overseas market development at Giordano International Limited. Its other outlets are…

Kenya’s annual inflation picked up to an 18-month high in August, largely driven by higher food and energy costs the statistics body said Tuesday. The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) said the rate accelerated to 6.55 per cent in August inflation from 6.44 per cent in July. “This was mainly driven by rise in prices of commodities under food and non-alcoholic beverages (10.67 per cent); transport (7.93 per cent); and housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (5.07 per cent) between August 2020 and August 202,” KNBS said in a statement. In the period, prices of cabbages, spinach and…