Author: Khusoko

Khusoko provides market insights into Africa's business investment as well as global trends that impact East African businesses.

The COVID-19 pandemic has thrust the world into an alarming state of uncertainty. While governments and organisations have put in measures to protect the wellbeing of the general public, navigating the unknown has required us all to make decisions without a blueprint, underscoring the value and importance of trust. For the first time, Edelman, which has been studying Trust for 20 years and releases an annual global Trust Barometer, has released data on Kenya. The study measures trust across four institutions: Government, Business, NGOs, and the Media.  According to the findings, NGOs and businesses were the most trusted institutions in…

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Kenya Airways has become the first airline to join the Global UTM Association (GUTMA), a non-profit consortium of unmanned aircraft systems traffic management (UTM) stakeholders. “We’re proud to join GUTMA, an association of like-minded organisations, whose aim is to spearhead the development and implementation of a globally interoperable UTMs and a harmonised global digital ecosystem for the UAS industry. We are the first airline member to join the GUTMA family,” KQ said on its Social feed. Through its, LinkedIn GUTMA said, “We are thrilled to welcome our first airline member Kenya Airways and look forward to our ever-increasing collaborations in…

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The impact of the coronavirus pandemic on Kenya’s economy is rather obvious. Investments have slowed, consumption has shrunk and the labor market is collapsing.  Despite the broad-based shocks, the banking sector has exhibited marked resilience, providing some hope that the economy may ride the tide successfully. The stability in the sector reflects previously established strong capital and liquidity buffers. Monetary and prudential easing has also helped to minimize asset quality deterioration. To be sure, the non-performing loan (NPL) ratio has remained sticky at 13.00% so far this year, the increase in credit risk notwithstanding. That said, the amount of restructured…

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While the world is laser-focused on the U.S. – China trade war something equally significant that will reshape the global landscape for the next 30 to 50 years is emerging in Africa. With the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) entering into force, there is a repositioning of the continent that disrupts the old way of engaging with its individual nations. Power is being centralized in the African Union (AU) and those looking to enter commercially in the future would have to realign – should they seek to move with speed on their trade & investment agenda. Ignoring the African Union…

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Kenya Power and Lighting Company Ltd. announced on Monday that five independent directors of its board had resigned.  The five: Mr Adil Khawaja, Mr Kairo Thuo, Mr Wilson Kimutai Mugung’ei, Mrs Brenda Kokoi and Hon Zipporah Kering. “The Board of Directors of the Kenya Power and Lighting Company PLC hereby announces the resignation of Mr. Adil Khawaja, Mr. Kairo Thuo, Mr.Wilson Kimutai Mugung’ei, Mrs. Brenda Kokoi and Hon. Zipporah Kering as Independent Directors,” read part of the notice. “The Directors would like to sincerely thank the Directors for tier commitment and dedicated service and wishes them the best in their…

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In the last several months, COVID-19 has taken up nearly every news headline in nearly every country in the world. The health impact, testing, confinement, and trying to curb the pandemic have rightly been at the forefront. In the developed world, conversations have been about corporate losses and the availability of unemployment benefits. But low-income countries experience a different reality: in sub-Saharan Africa, over 70 percent of workers are self-employed and a vast majority operate in the informal sector. Many bottom-of-the-pyramid Africans eat with the money they earn every day. Within this context, when a second massive swarm of locusts…

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