Taxi-hailing firm, Uber, has unveiled its specialised service, UberASSIST, in Nairobi providing additional assistance for riders with special needs. According to Uber, driver-partners are specifically trained to assist riders when getting into a vehicle and can accommodate folding wheelchairs and walkers. Nairobi is the third city in Africa where UberASSIST has been introduced, following the launch of the service in Johannesburg and Cape Town in August 2017. Read: Cairo becomes first city in the world to roll out Uber Bus “Everyone deserves an opportunity to travel freely within their own city, and with UberASSIST, we are able to provide reliable transportation…
Author: Khusoko
Khusoko
Khusoko provides market insights into Africa's business investment as well as global trends that impact East African businesses.
Citi Hoppa has introduced new buses dubbed ‘Citi Hoppa Next’ for Nairobi city commuters who use Mombasa Road, Langata Road and Ngong Road. The company stated that it was their endeavor to provide customers with comfort and reliability ‘which are the hallmark of the green and yellow buses that weave through our city’. “With the well-trained drivers, conductors and ground customer services, Citi Hoppa Next hopes to encourage the small vehicle owner to leave their car behind for this convenient, reliable and available service,” the company stated. “Main purpose of unveiling the buses is to continue serving Kenyans who are…
KenolKobil Group has announced the opening of a take over offer to all shareholders by Rubis Energie on Friday. The cash offer has also been approved by the Competition Authority of Kenya and the COMESA Competition Commission. The Board of Directors of KenolKobil Plc, after receiving an independent financial advisor’s report on the cash offer, has considered the offer and has recommended that the shareholders of KenolKobil Plc accept the offer. James Mathenge, Group Chairman says “The offer opened on 20th December 2018 and will close at 5pm on 18th February 2019.” Rubis Énergie SAS considers that KenolKobil Plc’s shareholders…
Kenyan citizens can travel visa-free and obtain a visa on arrival to 71 countries without visas out of a possible 218 according to the 2019 Henley & Partners Visa Restrictions Index. In Africa, Kenya is ranked 8th behind Seychelles, South Africa, Mauritius, Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho and Swaziland. In East Africa, it leads its peers where Tanzania is ranked 73rd with free access to 68 countries; South Sudan 97th with 41 visa-free destinations; Rwanda 84th with free access to 54 destinations. Burundi was 92nd with free access to 46 countries. “As the world economy has become increasingly globalised, the need for…
Tunisia’s AfricInvest and Kenya’s Catalyst Principal Partners have acquired a 24.2% minority stake in Prime Bank through a capital injection of KSh5.1bn. The two firms joined to form a special purpose vehicle dubbed AfricInvest Azure in order to enter the deal. The acquisition has valued Prime Bank at KSh21.1bn. “Prime Bank welcomes this new partnership with AfricInvest and Catalyst, which further strengthens our capital base in order to carry out strategic plans which include … expanding locally and regionally,” Bharat Jani, Managing Director at Prime Bank, revealed in a statement. According to Cytonn Investments, “This will be the first bank…
Demand for residential property declined in 2018 besides an increased supply, according to Cytonn Investments on the Kenyan Real Estate market. The real estate sector recorded a total return of 11.2% in 2018 compared to returns of 14.1% in 2017, showing a slow-down in real estate operators’ performance. Johnson Denge, Senior Manager Regional Markets at Cytonn commented that this was attributable to a slowdown in demand for property amid the growing supply. “Evidenced by the 3.0% points decline in the residential sector occupancy rates and the 0.4% points decline in occupancy rates in the retail space on account of increased…