Category Archives: medical insurance

KPMG on Kenya Taxes in 2021

KPMG East Africa has a summary of some tax proposals in the Finance Bill that will be used to plug the country’s ambitious Kshs 3.6 trillion 2021/22 budget.

Here are some excerpts

For investors

  • Depositories are to enhance the identity of investors i.e buyers and sellers of securities.
  • Creation of post-retirement medical funds in retirement benefits schemes.
  • Clarifies the definition of an infrastructure bond.
  • A capital markets tribunal shall deal with matters before it within 90 days.
  • Moving from 16% to exempt after July 1, 2021, are the transfer of assets into real estate investment trust (REIT’s) and asset-backed securities.

Competition

  • Opens up reinsurance to players other than Kenya Re to certify reinsurance contracts.
  • Opens the door to private electricity companies; no longer required to offer their supply to the national grid and they are eligible for investment deductions. Also, if government licenses them, they can compete with KPLC.

Prosecutions

  • Tax cases will not stop where there is an ongoing criminal or civil case.
  • Abolishes the amnesty on rental income tax before 2013 (which had since expired).
  • Rewards for informing on tax dodgers; The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) can reward up to Kshs 500,000 (up from 100,000) for information and up to 5% or Kshs 5 million of taxes recovered.
  • Taxpayers are to keep records for 7 years and KRA can assess claims of up to 7 years from the date of a taxpayer’s last return.

Digital Taxes and market

  • PIN’s required for digital marketplace transactions.
  • Digital service tax is removed from residents (only applies to non-residents).
  • Non-resident businesses can maintain records in convertible currencies (not necessarily Kenya shillings).

Large investors

  • To stop base erosion and profit shifting, multinationals / ultimate parent companies are required to file a report on their activities (revenue, profit, taxes paid, employees, assets, cash) in Kenya within 12 months of their financial year-end.
  • Ends group VAT registration for groups of companies; each entity will report its own VAT on transactions.
  • To encourage large investments, there is an exemption for import declaration fee (IDF) and railway development levy (RDL) for investments over Kshs 5 billion or with the approval of the Treasury Cabinet Secretary.

Value Added Tax

  • Introduces VAT on bread.
  • Several items move from 16% to exempt, which means the Treasury CS can exempt them on request. These include infants foods, medical ventilators, lab reagents, gas masks, x-ray equipment, anti-malaria kits and doses, and artificial body parts.
  • Also moving from 16% to exempt, are vehicles for oil & mining companies, and equipment for solar & wind generation.

Other

  • A 20% betting tax returns after being briefly for a year.
  • Bank loan fees no longer incur excise duty.
  • Remove a requirement for VAT regulations to be approved ahead by Parliament; instead they will be shared with legislators under the statutory instruments Act.
  • Withholding tax in oil and mining sectors will be 10%
  • Removes the 10 year limit on carrying tax losses
  • Excise tax goes up on motorcycles and is introduced on jewellery and nicotine substitutes.
  • Reintroduces excise duty on locally-manufactured sugar confectionery and white chocolate that was removed in 2019.

Coronavirus in Kenya: Week One

The Outbreak: 

  • March 13: The Ministry of Health confirms the first case of coronavirus in Kenya on March 12 from a Kenyan citizen who returned to the country from the USA via London 
  • March 22: Kenya confirms 8 new cases, bringing the total number to 15. It is tracing 363 other people and institutes a mandatory shutdown of major social activities in the country. 

Banking Industry:

  • March 15: President Uhuru Kenyatta appealed to banks and mobile operators to reduce the costs of mobile transactions and calls on Kenyans to use credit cards, mobile money and other forms of cashless payments. 
  • March 16: Safaricom waived fees for M-Pesa payments below Kshs 1,000 (~$10) for 90 days and raises M-Pesa transactions limits to Kshs 150,000 and also increases daily transaction caps and maximum mobile money wallet sizes up to Kshs 300,000 ($3,000). Airtel and Telkom Kenya follow suit a day later. 
  • March 18: Bankers meet the President at State House where the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) Governor announces that all commercial bank personal loans that were there in good standing on March 2, are eligible for extensions for up to one year while SME and corporate borrowers can approach their banks to be assessed for loan restructuring, with the cost borne by banks. Also, that banks would no longer charge fees for customers to check their bank balances.
  • Different banks announced their compliance with the new rules.   
  • March 19: The Kenya Bankers Association confirms that all banks will assist clients who come in to speak about how COVID-19 has affected their employment or business operations, and whose loan repayments were up to date as at 2 March 2020. They also ask all customers to observe 1-metre (or 3 feet) social distancing at branches
  • March 20: The CBK announces presents Kshs 7.4 billion ($74 million) to the Government to support the coronavirus fight efforts. This it says are the proceeds from the demonetization exercise that concluded in September 2019 and is the sum of (old) Kshs 1,000 notes that were not turned in and which the CBK had classified as being miscellaneous receipts. 

Famous People in Quarantine

  • March 18: Senator for Kericho County Aaron Cheruiyot announces on twitter that he is in self-quarantine. 
  • March 19: Members of Parliament and Parliamentary staff who arrived from London on March 9 are reported to be in self-quarantine. 
  • March 19: Ambassador Macharia Kamau Kenya’s Principal Secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announces on twitter that he is in self-quarantine after returning from New York. 
  • March 20: Jane Marriott, the British High Commissioner to Kenya announces on twitter that she is in self-quarantine, following her trip to the UK. 
  • March 22: Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Health announces that Gideon Saburi, the Deputy Governor of Kilifi County, has been apprehended and put in a mandatory 14-day quarantine after he failed to isolate himself after returning from a trip to Germany. Also that he will be charged in Court after his isolation period. 

Mandatory Quarantine in the Eastern Africa region 

  • March 18: Uganda announces immediate mandatory quarantine for arriving visitors, at their cost.  
  • March 21: Ethiopia announces mandatory for passengers arriving from March 23, at their cost. However, diplomats will be quarantined for 14 days at their embassies, while transiting passengers will be placed in isolation at the Ethiopian Skylight Hotel until they resume their connecting flights.
  •  March 22: Kenya has suspended all international flights other than cargo from March 25. Also, all arriving passengers will undergo mandatory quarantine at a government institution at their own cost. 

Internal country shutdowns

  • March 14: Rwanda closes schools, places of worship, large gatherings, and asks people to work from home. 
  • March 15: Kenya’s President announced the Government has closed all schools, suspended official foreign travel, and will encourage all employees to work from home. 
  • March 18: Uganda closes schools, universities and bars, and bans weddings and religious services for a month. 
  • March 21: Rwanda closes its borders to movement of people and cancels international flights, other than cargo ones. It also suspended tourism and research in 3 national parks where gorillas are found.
  • March 21: Nigeria shuts its airports to international flights as coronavirus cases reach 22.  
  • March 21: South Africa closes its airspace to foreign travelers.
  • March 22: Kenya orders a suspension of religious services at all places of worship, closure of bars and bans gatherings including weddings, and birthday parties. Restaurants are to remain open for delivery services and funeral events are restricted to a maximum of 15 mourners.

Flight cancellations/ Airlines reschedulings:

  • March 17: Kenya Airways updates its schedule, reducing London flights to five times a week, Dubai & Johannesburg to once daily, and Johannesburg to two daily. It also suspends flights to Bangkok, Khartoum, Djibouti & Mogadishu. 
  • March 18: Rwanda announces a halt to all commercial passenger flights into/out of the country on March 20 including operations of Rwanda Air for 30 days. 
  • March 19: Kenya Airways suspends flights to Antananarivo, Bamako, Bangui, Blantyre, Brazzaville, Kigali, Kilimanjaro, Luanda, Yaounde/Douala, and Zanzibar. 
  • March 20: Ethiopian Airlines announces 30 routes closures. The list is not revealed till the next day – and the listed countries include Egypt, Lebanon, Somalia, Djibouti, Namibia, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Chad, Madagascar, Angola, Congo, Mali, Senegal, Rwanda, South Africa, Canada, Spain, Belgium, Switzerland, Indonesia, Israel and all US ones. 
  • March 20: South African Airways immediately suspends all operations until the end of May following a government notice prohibiting the embarkation/disembarkation of non-SA crew and passengers. The only flights that will remain will be domestic service between Johannesburg and Cape Town.
  • March 22: Emirates announces cancellation of all passenger flights from March 25 .. but .. 
https://twitter.com/AlexInAir/status/1241759364068904961
  • March 22: Turkish Airlines to suspend most of its flights – leaving just a handful of flights to New York, Washington, Addis Ababa, Moscow & Hong Kong (via AlexinAir).
  • March 22: Kenya Airways suspends all international flights. Cargo flights remain, as will passenger services to Mombasa and Kisumu. 

Corporate Restructuring’s: 

  • March 13: Trading was suspended at the Nairobi Securities Exchange. This came following news of the discovery of the first coronavirus case in Kenya and the main share index dropped by over 5%. Past instances when circuit-et breakers have been tripped include in the period of post-election violence in 2008, and in September 2017, on the day that Kenya’s Supreme Court nullified the results of the August 8 presidential election. 
  • March 13: Kenya’s insurance regulator, IRA, communicates that insurance companies will continue to provide their services to policy holders affected or infected with the virus .. but insurance companies say their re-insurers do not cover pandemics such as Coronavirus. 
  • March 16: Ethiopian Airlines restructuring plans include scaling up cost-saving programmes and asking service providers for temporary relief, discounts and waivers. They have also started to renegotiate all contracts, including aircraft leases as well as scaling down offices and reducing staff.
  • March 16: Java adjusts seating and promotes delivery as do other restaurants. But many other restaurants closed. 
  • March 18: It was revealed that The Standard Group plans to lay off 170 workers. 
  • March 18: Churches to restrict attendance numbers.
  • March 18: The African Development Bank cancels all travels and requires staff to work from home. The Bank’s Board of Directors is reviewing the configuration and design of the Bank’s statutory Annual Meetings originally scheduled for May 26-29, 2020 in Abidjan. 
  • March 18: Kenyan listed companies and licensed investment schemes that were to host annual general meetings (AGM’s) in March, April and May 2020 have been asked to defer them to later dates.
  • March 20: Kenya Airways CEO sends a memo to staff following COVID-19 and writes that in the last 24 hours, nine countries in our Africa network, the UAE and India have announced travel restrictions. So far, we have reduced approximately 65% of our flights, and this is changing by the hour. He announces that instead of layoffs they will ask staff to take salary reduction and paid & unpaid leave. The leadership team and he will take 75% and 80% respectively, while that for other staff will be 25% or 50% depending on the pay grade.
  • To facilitate supermarket shopping home deliveries, Tuskys has partnered with Sendy and Naivas has partnered with Glovo.

Government Adjustments 

  • March 16: The Ministry of Lands closes all land registries for 28 days from March 17. 
  • March 16: Kenya’s Sports & Culture Ministry closes all museums, archives, stadiums, public libraries, and cinemas for 30 days.
  • March 18: Kenya’s National Assembly and Senate both go on a month-long recess. 
  • March 18: Kenyan courts embraced digital filings and rulings of cases. 
  • March 19: Public health campaign to stop the spread is launched. 

Uplifting News

  • March 21: A thread to help those losing jobs their jobs this week and to help match their skills with part-time or remote-work opportunities. 
  • March 22: The first shipment of medical relief equipment offered by the Jack Ma Foundation arrives in Africa for distribution to different countries. The total will be 500,000 test kits and one million masks had been pledged on March 13.
  • EDIT: March 2 2022: Two years after Corona’s outbreak, the Kenya Government has almost completely rolled back its restrictions and health measures – and tests will no longer be required for fully vaccinated travellers (but may be set by airlines and destination countries), masks are no longer mandatory in open spaces (but at crowded meetings & in palens), contact tracing has been stopped, and people can return to office work, while churches, public transportation and sports can resume at full capacity. THIS WAS FAKE NEWS

EDIT COVID RESTRICTIONS LIFTED

  • March 11 2022: With 17.8 million vaccines having been administered in Kenya, and a positivity rate of 1%, the Government announced a rollback of measures including facemasks will no longer be mandatory in open spaces, but people are encouraged to wear them at indoor venues, passenger transport can resume at full capacity, all quarantine is halted, sports spectators can resume attendance, churches and meeting can resume as long as people are vaccinated and the practice of taking temperatures at public entrances is halted. Also, all international travellers into the country will load data onto a Ministry of Health app, all unvaccinated travellers into the country must have a recent covid test result and will be tested at their own cost, while vaccinated truck drivers from East Africa will not require Covid tests. The measures were announced exactly two years since the onset of Covid in Kenya.

    • NSE Charity Day 2019 supports the fight against cancer.

    The fifth Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) Charity Day held today spotlighted the prevention and management of cancer in Kenya.  All the day’s equities trading fees will be donated to the National Cancer Institute of Kenya, a body that has been mandated to coordinate all cancer management activity including research and the setting up a national cancer registry.  

    NSE Vice Chairman Bob Karina said that previous Charity Day’s had been staged with different themes and raised over Kshs 30 million to support identified worthy causes. The NSE supported wildlife conservation in 2015, the environment in 2016, and girl-child protection in 2017, while last year they supported education endeavours. The NSE Company Secretary Kuria Waithaka mentioned organizations that have received support from previous “charity days” included SOS Children’s Home, Joy Children’s Home, Save the Elephants and the Borana Ranch Conservancy – where the NSE had adopted and named a rhino “Hisa,” which is Swahili for ‘shares.’

    Barclays Kenya’s Head of Markets, Anthony Kirui said that the Barclays which had been a partner of the NSE Charity Day for the last three years was in the final stage of its brand transition to Absa. The new identity was being rolled out with a strategy to put customers at the front and some of the tailor-made services the bank now has include unsecured credit for small & medium enterprises (SME’s) of up to Kshs 10 million (~$100,000), and LPO financing of up to Kshs 50 million, while mortgages can be 100% financed.

    Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary in the Ministry of Health, Sicily Kariuki said that the country recorded 48,000 new detections of cancer and 33,000 deaths every year and that everyone knows someone who has been affected or has fundraised towards someone’s cancer treatment.

    She added that while the Government was investing in interventions in the cancer fight and to reduce the cancer burden through new radiotherapy and cancer centres, 80% of the fight was within people’s control; she asked that people mind their lifestyles, meals, physical activity, environments & communities, and go for early screenings.

    Celebrity participants at the trading day included Sheila Mwanyigha, Terryanne Chebet Suzie Wokabi, Nameless, Patricia Kihoro, Pinky Ghelani  and June Gachui, among others, placed NSE client trades online and over phones working alongside real stockbrokers. The day saw 13.27 million shares traded worth Kshs 528.6 million with top activities being around Safaricom and Equity Bank.

    Cancer Insurance in Kenya

    Kenyan insurance firm, ICEA Lion (the Insurance Company of East Africa), launched a cancer insurance policy in October. They have been advertising in newspapers, TV with the promise of cover for just Kshs 165 ($1.$ per month). Yet there is a billboard, and their own FAQ’s, that state that the policy is NOT a medical insurance cover. So what is it?

    Cancer impacts: Cancer is becoming more prevalent, affecting thousands of Kenyan every year and has been cited in the illness and death of many Kenyans. Today’s Nation newspaper has a report than one in five Kenyans will develop cancer in their lifetimes and that one out of every eleven deaths in the country is due to cancer.

    Cancer afflicts all groups, and the working and the wealthy seem as afflicted as poorer Kenyans, who may not have any medical insurance. Treatment comes with hefty bills for scans, operations, radiation, chemotherapy and other treatments, whether in Kenya or overseas, especially in India. There are dozens of fund-raisers every month within families or online, or in church groups etc.

    Features: The ICEA cover pays out a percentage of the sum insured when one is diagnosed with invasive cancer (which is spreading to other organs or healthy body cells) or a brain tumour.

    ICEA pays the insured person, not the hospital so that they meet their medical or other ordinary living expenses for which cancer treatment would pose a burden. The policy offsets financial obligations arising from medical expenses and is targeted at heads of households. Recent surveys on financial inclusion found that 42% of Kenyans use their own savings to manage shocks and risks, such as medical treatment, and 28% use social networks.

    The ICEA policy pays 10% upon diagnosis, 5% of the sum insured for each course of chemotherapy (for up to five instances or five years), 5% of the sum insured for each course of radiotherapy (for up to five instances or five years), and 20% of the sum insured for one surgical procedure in the first five years.

    Another 10% is paid in case there is a relapse between years five and ten, and another 10% is paid if there is a remission after year ten. If someone requires palliative care (basically pain management with no more chance of recovery), 100% of the remaining insured sum is released.

    For brain tumors, 10% is paid on diagnosis, and 40% of the insured sum can be used to pay for surgery.

    Payment is made within two weeks (14 days) of a claim. Payments can be made to the policy owner, or their beneficiaries and is done regardless of other medical insurance in place.

    Joining: No medical tests are required for sums up to Kshs 5,000,000 (~$49,250). The maximum age to join is 60 years and the cover expires when one turns 65 years. The policy runs for a minimum of 5 years.

    Policy Costs: ICEA has a premium calculator on their website e.g. for a 25-year old to have the cover of Kshs 5 million, it will cost Kshs 1,174 per month or 14,000 per year. And for Kshs 10 million (~$98,500) of cover, that will be Kshs 2,349 per month or Kshs 28,187 ($277) per year. The cost increases as one gets older and if one is 45 years old, and with the looming cap of 65 years, to get Kshs 10 million cover will cost 18,310 per month or Kshs 219,722 ($2,164) per year. Also, payment is waived if someone is diagnosed with stage 4 cancer.

    Exclusions:

    • If one is diagnosed within three months of purchasing the cover.
    • If one has signs of cancer within the 12 months before they purchased the policy or had been diagnosed earlier.
    • No payments for surgery to diagnose cancer.
    • Benign or malignant tumours (i.e. cancer which is not spreading )
    • For some prostate tumors or some leukemia (blood cancer) types.
    • If a woman had a mastectomy or lumpectomy within five years before the policy started.
    • For any cancer caused by a pre-existing condition.

    Medical Insurance in Kenya: Medical insurance is not a lucrative product. According to the Association of Kenya Insurers (AKI), eleven companies underwrote medical insurance of more than one billion shillings in the year, topped by Jubilee, followed by others such as AAR, Resolution, APA, CIC, and Madison. But the industry saw Kshs 56 billion of claims in 2018, that was led by medical insurance with claims of Kshs 20 billion ($197 million), followed by private motor and commercial motor with claims of about Kshs 14 billion each. Only seven out of twenty-three companies made an underwriting profit from medical insurance.

    ⁩Other firms with medical insurance that extends to some cover for cancer-related illnesses include UAP / Old Mutual, GA Insurance, and the National Hospital Insurance Fund under their “SUPA” cover.

    Genghis Stock Picks for 2019

    Nairobi-based investment bank Genghis Capital launched their 2019 “investor playbook” with the theme of embracing value. 2018 was a challenging year for the Kenyan economy and capital markets and that is expected to continue in 2019, but this also presents opportunities for investors.

    Kenya has a relatively small number of stocks (65) on the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE) – and Genghis chose nine stocks as their 2019 financial (banking & insurance) and non-financial picks for investors, in three categories:

    • Momentum stocks: Equity Bank, East African Breweries, KCB Group, Safaricom.
    • Income stocks: Stanbic, Barclays Kenya, Standard Chartered, KCB. 
    • Value stocks: Kenya Reinsurance, KCB, Bamburi Cement. 

    They cited that Safaricom scored positively in every category while KCB and Equity banks had embraced digitization, high asset quality and low cost structures.

    Other points from the playbook launch presentation:

    • They do not expect a repeal of interest rate caps this year, even though its impact has been negative on the economy.
    • Funds raised for infrastructure bonds are not all being used for that; some are going to retire other debts and they should be properly used
    • Public-private partnerships are not coming to fruition; paperwork for the Nairobi-Nakuru highway was submitted in April 2018 but there has been no decision.
    • To a question – “what is the regulator doing to increase the confidence of investors amid fraud incidents?” – the CMA can only do so much and the onus is still on the company directors. International markets have graver penalties than Kenya and perhaps it is time the Director of Public Prosecutions started looking at some cases here and following through on enforcement. 
    • While Kenya Re is a pick in the playbook, they generally don’t cover the insurance sector – it has challenges including fraud, price under-cutting, and low penetration levels (3%) and a lot has to happen to unlock value and growth in the insurance mass market. Kenya Re is there because it is under-valued (owing to lack of clear strategy and proper management) but would be desirable to other insurance investors if the government decided to sell its shareholding.
    • They expect one main listing and others on the smaller NSE boards this year. But while a number of planned privatizations have been mentioned  – Consolidated and Development banks, Kenya Pipeline, Kenya Ports they face numerous hurdles while others like sugar companies in Western Kenya have been on the pipeline since 2011.