Category Archives: KCB

The Youth in Kenya

Yesterday saw the launch of a book entitled “Youth In Kenya: A Ticking Time Bomb” which is co-authored by a friend. The book looks at the challenge and job opportunities for the youth in Kenya, in terms of incentives, appropriate skills, cost of business, and new jobs for the youth, who one guest described as only interested in watching English soccer matches in the villages.

Some excerpts

Kenya’s education system was designed by the British to be a source of raw materials and cheap labour.
Education CS Fred Matiangi: No other sub-Saharan Africa has put the resources in education that Kenya has in 50 years, and with 290 technical education institutions, there will be one in every constituency.
George Njenga: There are over 70,000 skilled Kenyans working in South Africa. It is important to look at the training of teachers, so that they also impact good foundation and lessons to the youth and Strathmore Business School has started on that.
Jonathan Mueke: There have to be standards in the Jua Kali sector – thousands of people produce hoes (jembes) that won’t dig, and which Nakumatt (a large supermarket chain) cannot sell.
FT Nyammo: We have thousands of available jobs to be done in the coffee, tea, and dairy sectors in rural Kenya, but no youth are willing to do them as they consider them to be menial. Also, the Jua Kali sector provides 80% of employment when the economy is good, and the government should channel incentives there to create more Manu Chandarias! (one of Kenya’s most renowned industrial entrepreneurs)

One of the books’ main authors says he was inspired by media stories from last July, which described the Kenya Judiciary and Ports Authority as being were overwhelmed by job applicants; some had received 80,000 applications for 1,000 jobs advertised and even had stampedes at their offices.

The book was published by Longhorn and sells for Kshs 900 ($10). It’s a non-academic book edited for everyone to read.

Aside from this, last week, the KCB (Bank) Group launched “2JIAJIRI”, a KShs. 50 billion job creation program under they committed to “set aside Kshs.10 billion annually in the next five years towards driving this enterprise development programme over the funds which will be used largely to support small and medium businesses run by the youth.” They hope to “reach 500,000 entrepreneurs (both existing and new ones) in 5 years, thereby creating at least 2.5 million direct and indirect jobs.”

situs gacor

rtp slot

slot gacor

High School Scholarships from Kenyan Banks

The leading indigenous Kenyan banks now have scholarship programs that target bright children who are going into high school.

The pioneer of this is Equity Bank, whose foundation program dubbed Wings To Fly will this year hand out 2,000 scholarships to school children entering high school. They target students with financial needs who scored more than 350 marks in primary school exams whose results were announced last week. The program has helped over 10,000 since its inception and students or their families can collect applications from their local bank branches. The support includes fees, pocket money, a pair of shoes each year and participation in a mentorship and leadership program. Also, in 2015, 65 students received overseas university scholarships from the Foundations’ Equity Leaders Program.
KCB, through its Foundation, has a scholarship program that will support 240 children from all counties through their secondary schools, and this will include tuition, uniform, books, and mentorship. KCB also has partnerships that support scholarships through the Palmhouse Foundation, Starehe Girls, & Starehe Boys schools, and others that donate books, renovate classes and provide water tanks to schools. The total figure is about Ksh 100 million ($1 million) for 2016. Their research shows that Kenya has one of the most expensive secondary education systems in Africa. Presently, fees for national and county schools range from KSh45,000 to KSh136,000 (~$1,360) per year, which is not affordable for many parents.
Cooperative Bank is going to award scholarships to 655 children through its Foundation Scholarship Scheme for 2016. 420 will be selected by the bank and 235 will be awarded by county governments in each of the 47 counties in Kenya (at 5 per county). The bank will also pay for the university education of 130 of the top students in the secondary school examinations.
Family Bank has an education program that includes secondary school scholarships and a talent program that gives employment opportunities to top kids after high school.

situs gacor

rtp slot

slot gacor

Relief for Imperial Bank Depositors

Finally a breakthrough for depositors has been reached at Imperial Bank after 1.5 months of anguish:

Kenya Commercial Bank and Diamond Trust Bank will pay depositors of Imperial Bank their deposits, up to Kshs 1 million ($,9800) each. This means that 44,300 or 89% of the banks’ depositors will get their money within a few weeks at branches of KCB or DTB.
This comes as Imperial Bank shareholders have not accepted the government proposal that will allow reopening of the bank.
The support of the (DTB’s largest shareholder) Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED) has been instrumental in reaching this agreement.

situs gacor

rtp slot

slot gacor

Interswitch in Kenya

Interswitch is a Nigeria-based, transaction switching and electronic payments processing company, with operations in several African countries. The company, founded in 2002, provides payment solutions for individuals and organizations, mainly around financial services to several private sector companies, as well as in the public sector (government revenue, health care etc.)

Interswitch was majority acquired by Helios Investment Partners for $96 million in 2011. Helios are best known in Kenya for their large investments in Equity Bank, Wananchi Online, and soon, at Telkom Kenya, where they are in the process of buying out France’s Orange Telecom.

Interswitch itself entered Kenya by buying 85% of Paynet Holdings in 2014, which was best known for it’s Pesa Point network of ATM’s, which was launched in 2005, and which grew to serve customers of over 100 institutions including several of the large and mid-size banks. At the time of the Interswitch purchase in 2014, Paynet Services had 2013 revenue of Kshs. 320 million (~$3.7 million) and powered 1,200 ATM’s and 1,300 bank agent locations in Kenya.

Interswitch also owns Verve International which is the largest card brand in Nigeria with almost 30 million customers. Interswitch launched the Verve card brand in Kenya last month, in a partnership with KCB, East Africa’s largest bank

situs gacor

rtp slot

slot gacor

Dividend Payments across East Africa – Redux

It’s been four years since this post and the signs are still not encouraging for cross-border dividend payments across East Africa.

Good – Safaricom: I get my dividends by M-Pesa – in fact one came last week, right on the 15th anniversary of the company. At Safaricom, M-Pesa is the preferred method of paying dividends which are below Kshs 70,000 to shareholders – and this would work for almost 99% of their individual shareholders who all own less than 100,000 shares each.

But for Ugandan shareholders of Safaricom, to receive the share of the largest dividend in Kenya’s history ($256 million), they get a cheque in the mailbox that takes 4 days to clear. The next thing for M-Pesa dividends is to have them automatically reinvested into buying other shares; but for now, you can instantly lock the funds away in an interest-earning M-Pesa fixed deposit.

No change – Stanbic Uganda: Shareholders in Kenya get a cheque in the mail which takes one month to clear and costs $8-10 per cheque. No improvement, and not likely to change.

Bad: (a surprising step back this year is) Bralirwa: At last review, Bralirwa (the Rwanda brewery) dividend cheques were issued KCB Rwanda, and KCB Kenya was encasing cheques at their branches in Kenya provided Kenyan shareholders presented their cheques, and proved their identity – they could receive equivalent cash payments up to RWF50K (~$67).

This year that option is not there as KCB Kenya is not encashing cheques! A shareholder has to deposit the dividend cheque into KCB or any other Kenyan bank to get the payment. I tried that at my Barclays branch and they refused as they simply don’t have Rwanda francs in their bank system.

10 November 2015

situs gacor

rtp slot

slot gacor

Bankelele

Nairobi writer on Banking, Finance, Technology, and Investments

Category Archives: KCB

The Youth in Kenya

High School Scholarships from Kenyan Banks

Relief for Imperial Bank Depositors

Interswitch in Kenya

Dividend Payments across East Africa – Redux