Category Archives: Daima Bank

Godfather

Out of the box thinking
First Africa Capital is a different sort of investment bank. I find their alternative financing proposals refreshing because Kenya is a country littered with down and out organizations in need of capital – and while other investment Banks mainly chase after blue chip companies and projects, First Africa pursues innovative ways to enable struggling companies secure valuable resources and opportunities. Some of their recent, but unsuccessful, client venture include, Telkom Kenya’s bid to buy more safaricom shares from Vodaphone, Equity Building Society’s (now Bank) offer to revive (collapsed) Daima Bank, start up financing for Econet Wireless Kenya – and now parastatal National Oil Corporation’s bid for the assets of BP Kenya.

Job opportunities

National Aids Control Council
– Economist (financing strategy)
– Monitoring & evaluation control specialist
– database administrator
Apply to the Director, NACC by November 25.

Community Officer at Kituo Cha Sheria, a leading Human Rights and Legal Aid NGO. Applicants should have bachelor’s degree in Social Sciences, 1 year experience in community organisation & development and excellent counselling paralegal & computer skills. Apply to the executive director by November 15

Simbanet a leading IT company is seeking
– head of customer support; applicants must have A+, N+ or CCNA, MCSR and 2 years ISP experience
– support engineer for VSAT: must have recognised IT diploma or degree, and be CCNA/CCNP certified with good knowledge of IP addressing, routing, DNS web servers and with 2 to 3 years working at an ISP
– junior accountant: part qualified CPA or ACCA, with 2 to 3 years experience and be not older than 27.
Apply to jobs@simbanet.co.ke by November 21.

Trust Fund Manager at the national Environmental Management Authority (NEMA)
Job entails administering a trust fund, create an award scheme, network and write proposals for fund raising and sustaining donor relationships. Applicants must have a communications degree (marketing specialization) and some NGO experience. Apply to the Director General NEMA P. O. Box 68839-00200 Nairobi by November 25.

Senior Policy Analysts at the Kenya Institute of Public Policy Research and Analysis (KIPPRA). Applicants must have PhD in economics and 5 years policy research and analysis experience. Apply to Hilda@kippra.or.ke by November 24.

Country Manager at IAT, an ACT learning organization. Applicants must be aged 30 – 40 with MBA or CPA II, with at least 8 years experience (of which 5 were as a manager and 2 managing a profit center). Apply to the Human Resource Director at opportunities@iat.co.ke by November 18. (Include a max 300 word essay explaining how you will contribute to the position)

research, monitoring & evaluation officer at the coastal rural support program of the Aga Khan Foundation. Applicants should have an advanced social sciences or development degree, with some NGO and strategic planning experience. Apply to crsp-k@africaonline.co.ke by November 25.

internal auditor (hr/aud/01/05) at Del Monte Kenya. Applicants should have a commerce or business degree, be fully qualified accountants under age 40, be familiar with the Sarbanes Oxley act and agricultural organization and have 5 years audit experience. Apply to nanasi@delmonte.co.ke by November 16.

finance & administration manager at the intermediate technology development group (ITDG) applicants must have a business degree, be fully qualified accountants be familiar with contract accounting and NGO work and also have 5 years experience, 3 at managerial level. Apply to recruitment@itdg.or.ke by November 23.

policy manager at ActionAid International Kenya. Applicants should have masters in social sciences, with at least 5 years experience in development work, policy research and advocacy, understanding of public policies and laws, networking, lobbying & communications skills and be willing to travel outside Kenya. Apply by November 21 to hr@actionaid.org

Other opportunities

Cable distribution
Cablevision is seeking distributors of their digital cable TV with 80 channels. Contact Sachin Shaha at sachin@cablevision.co.ke

Survey for Citizen Report Card in Kenya: WSP-AF has embarked on an 18-month Consumer Voice project in selected cities in Africa with the objective of creating larger scale and more direct links with consumers, deepening consumers’ understanding of water sector reform and water and sanitation issues, and strengthening informed consumer voice in water supply and sanitation service reform and management. The vehicle WSP-AF proposes to use is the Citizen Report Card. The Citizen Report Card (CRC) is a simple but powerful tool to provide public agencies with systematic feedback from users by collecting citizen feedback on the quality and adequacy of public services from actual users. CRC’s s will be implemented in three cities in Kenya: Mombasa, Kisumu and Nairobi and an experienced and professional survey firm will be contracted to undertake the data collection that forms the basis for the Report Card. Expressions of Interest (EOI), in electronic format, are invited from suitable firms with the following characteristics; Experience with sample surveys of this magnitude in Kenya, Kenya-based staff, a track record of rigorous quality control and excellent reporting. The deadline for submission of the EOI is November 16 at 16 00 hrs.

non-runners in the news
Nationals of other countries were granted exemptions, but Kenyans still require transit visas to pass through South Africa.

Some ex-Maseno Boys accomplish themselves at college basketball in the USA

anyang nyongo week: The minister, quite rightly, pointed out that it is difficult for SME’s to borrow money from banks at affordable rates and conducive terms. But he also poured cold water only the recently concluded privatization of Kenya Railways.

Godfather
Finally, Nation’s NTV is showing The Godfather Trilogy on Monday nights after 9:30 and has now run two weeks of the series. The trilogy rearranges the three films into a proper chronological sequence (De Niro – Brando – Pacino) and also has extra scenes that were never shown in the theatrical versions (and which I have never seen). But it’s frustrating whoever edits the series at NTV has been cutting off scenes inappropriately to insert commercial and promos for other Nation shows.

Business Briefs

Econet Licence Good: Econet is Back (for now at least) on track – But I won’t believe it till I see the launch, and a kiosk selling Econet airtime.

KRA is no IRS: The Kenya Revenue Authority is unable to pay 2.2 billion in VAT refunds it owes to corporations. They blame the Minister (Treasury) for giving away too many incentives and waivers.

Daima Bank: Depositors and Creditors of Daima Bank are invited to a meeting at 680 Hotel on 4th March at 10 a.m. where they will be given an update on attempts to revive the Bank that is now under statutory management by CBK.

Serena Profits: In a sign of the recovery in the tourism sector, Tourism Promotion Services (the Serena Hotels Group) announced a 420% increase in profits – from 25m in 03 to Kshs. 130 million in 2004.

Media: After reviving True Love and Drum Magazines, the Nation Media Group will now also revive the Weekly Review after taking over the name from Hillary Ng’weno.

Meanwhile, the Standard will launch a Coast magazine pullout in its Thursday paper, starting tomorrow, to compete against the Nation’s Coast Express which is published on Friday’s (as a separate weekly newspaper).

Supermarkets: Uchumi plans to do a share rights issue (similar to KCB in 04) in June 2005 to raise Kshs. 750 million.

Meanwhile, Nakumatt management confirmed plans to open 2 stores every year.

Airlines: An Official of Miami Dade Aviation wrote a letter to the Standard to clarify that (i) their recent visit to Kenya was to assist JKIA upgrade from a category II to Category I status which would enable direct flight to America, and also to promote a trade conference which will take place in the US later this year (ii) denied that they (Miami) had insisted that KLM/KQ alliance be dissolved (iii) confirmed that there were no plans yet for KQ to fly to Miami, at this stage, they have only presented a proposal to the KQ MD

Meanwhile Al-Etihad Airlines will fly from Abu-Dhabi to Nairobi.

Banking News

Faster cheque clearing: Omingo Magara, a Kenyan MP, and an institution known as Accountability International are lobbying to expedite the clearing of cheques at Kenyan Banks from the current four (working) days to 24 hours in an initiative known as “T+1”

Who wants to be a billionaire? Stanbic (Standard Bank of South Africa) and Equity Bank have both raised their share capital recently. Stanbic had a $10 million capital injection while Equity did theirs by converting 725 million in deposits into shares. Stanbic’s reasons were disclosed fully in South Africa as they intend to diversify into new areas; however the Equity one is a bit strange / troubling for its new shareholders. The mode of conversion is similar to what Daima is attempting – but what will happen if any of Equity’s 2,216 depositors wants to dispose of their shares?. The shares are expected to be floated on the Nairobi Stock Exchange by June 2005.

Utility Service (Water Bills):  Kenyans can now pay their bills at branches of Co-operative Bank – just take your water bill and the cash payment, or you can have the amount automatically deducted from your Co-op account. However with their long lines in the banking halls, and especially at their ATM’s, Co-op seems to be biting off more than they can chew. They may need to review their account maintenance requirements to ensure better service to the customers they desire.

Hillcrest Schools to be sold: Hillcrest School and Hillcrest Secondary School will be sold to settle a Kshs. 620 million loan to Barclays Bank according to the Nation (Feb 1). The Receiver Manager, DCDM firm, will sell the schools as a going concern and the new owner will have to grapple with high costs at the schools, including a monthly salary bill of Kshs 16 million at one school.

Away from politics, talking points for Monday

If you’re still earning less than 2% on your savings accounts or fixed deposit accounts (rates dipped in 2003, and early 2004), you should ask your bank or branch manager to raise it or you’ll take a walk. With treasury bill rates at 8%, and banks lending at around 17%, you should be able to earn at least 5%. Standard Chartered, in the Friday newspapers proclaimed, “You deserve a raise” as they trumpeted rates of up to 5.5% for 12 months and 7.2% for 24 months. Other banks are expected to follow suit, but more quietly.

Since Equity Building Society got their license and converted into a bank, they have now walked away from their offer to buy out Daima Bank (in statutory management). They had earlier offered to buy Daima for 220 million (and also assume Daima’s 800 million debts). Still, according to the Sunday Standard, a deal to revive Daima should be completed in February 2005 with another investor.

Prime Bank has signed on to sponsor the main series of golf events in Kenya known as the “festival of golf.” This year the festival will comprise 18 tournaments around the country, with the finals to be on September 3 at Leisure Lodge Mombasa (a sister company of Prime Bank).

Limited Options for Daima Bank

The Sunday Standard has a story on Daima Bank, which has been under statutory management by the CBK since March 2003.

Shareholders and depositors will meet on December 14th where they will be asked to accept a buyout of the institution or wind it up. The bank needs to be re-capitalized by 250 million shillings

Shareholders are being “pressured” to accept the offer on the table from First Africa Capital which they feel is too low i.e. to inject capital of 220 million shillings and pay depositors 25% of their money. (FAC is South Africa based company whose famous Kenyan face is Wanjiku Mugane) They will also take over 800m debts of the bank. Shareholders had rejected an earlier offer from First Africa to pay 22% of depositors.

The article further alleges that CBK blocked two offers from Fina Bank (to pay 25% of their deposits) and Capital Alliance (to pay 65% of deposits) Earlier, Mbeki Enterprises Incorporated (http://www.mbekiusa.com/) got cold feet and withdrew its offer to buy 49% of the bank for 250 million.