Author: Khusoko

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

Kenya’s National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich and Principal Secretary Kamau Thugge are set to face charges over alleged irregular advance payments for the construction of Kimwarer and Arror dams. According to the Director of Public Prosecutions, Noordin Haji, “The persons we are charging today were mandated with safeguarding our public interest and deliberately breached this trust and not only bound Kenya to a loan but they ensured that the funds did not come into the consolidated fund, in effect guaranteeing that no one was oversighting its use, they broke the law on public finance management, under the guise of…

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Diaspora remittances from Kenyans living and working abroad soared to an all-time high of KSh30.3 billion in June according to the Central Bank of Kenya weekly bulletin data. This was an increase of 21% from KSh24.7 billion of diaspora remittances recorded in May. As a result, the 12-month cumulative inflows hit KSh282.3 billion representing a growth of 13.6%, up from Ksh248.6 billion recorded in June last year. “The remittance inflows rose to an all-time high in June 2019 amounting to $295 million compared to $243 million in May,’’ CBK said. North America, Europe and the Rest of the world accounted…

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Safaricom’s Digifarm, a consumer mobile app solution which aims to find sustainable solutions for smallholder farmers to expand and improve their business activities, is projected to outpace M-Pesa in performance in the next five years. “The rate of growth has been phenomenal and we expect that DigiFarm will be bigger than M-Pesa in the next three to five years,” says Chief Financial Officer Sitoyo Lopokoiyit. “Using the mobile technology platform, smallholder farmers get access to information on financial services. They also receive discounted products, customized information and tutorials on farming practices,” he added. https://twitter.com/kenyanwalstreet/status/1151770271541579776 Read: M-Pesa to pass 50% mark…

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Masoko, Safaricom’s e-commerce proposition is expanding beyond Kenya anchored by the growing internet-based businesses where digital payments systems are becoming popular by the year 2020. This is on the backdrop of the expected growth of Smartphones in the region estimated to hit over 525 million users as at the end of next year. “As a telco, we are purposed to transform lives by investing in technology and knowledge that will widen the reach of the possibilities they have witnessed in the last two decades to reach right across Africa, using that pocket- sized gadget,” Sitoyo Lopokoiyit, Chief Financial Services Officer,…

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Tourism is on the rise in Kenya with an estimated 2 million tourists being recorded to have toured in the last financial year according to the latest data from the Ministry. The ministry projects that the number is likely to rise this year with data indicating that over 900,000 tourists have already visited the country ahead of the high season. “Already over 900,000 international tourists have visited the Country and our projections are that this will rise to over 2.1m as the high peak season is ahead of us,” Tourism Research Institute acting CEO David Gitonga said while releasing the…

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The Implementation of Kenya’s Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) ‘It is almost imminent’ according to the Principal Secretary, State Department for Housing and Urban Development. PS Charles Hinga said the ministry has received some budget which will be used for upgrading facilities before its rollout. He was speaking on Thursday at a multistakeholder meeting convened by the Management University of Africa under the auspices of Road Safety Solutions of Kenya (ROSSOK). ROSSOK presented it’s Public Transport Taskforce Project (PCPT) outcomes themed ‘Building a vision for a people-centered Public Transport’. According to the research consultant Dr.Njoroge Waweru, Kenya has the best comprehensive…

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