Category Archives: World Cup

Urban Inflation Index September 2009

(i) Tracking changes in the three months since June 2009, and approximately one year and two years ago
(ii) also the job/other opportunities column is back

Gotten cheaper
Communications: leading mobile company Safaricom this week launched Super Ongea, a zoning tariff that eases congestion on the network by offering different rates from the then low 8 shillings per minute (now the high) to as low as 80 cents per minute. This they hope will ease congestion on the network and also hold on to some customers who are flocking to the cheaper new provider Yu (Essar telecom) who have very low rates. Zain and Orange have gone slow on the marketing front, and this week the Orange CEO called for an end to price wars. The new Safaricom tariff does not affect data or money transfer of which Safaricom is getting a stranglehold with m-pesa and 3G. Safaricom is big seller of mobile phones, modems, and laptop computers, going full blast in data at the expense of retail ISP’s while M-Pesa utilization has taken on a life of its own that makes Kenyans wonder how life was before mobile money transfers started three years ago.

Foreign Exchange: 1 US$ equals Kshs. 75.93 compared to 77.94 three months ago.

About the same
Fuel: A litre of petrol is Kshs 80.9 (~$4.79/gal) up 11% in 3 months, 1@% cheaper than a year ago and 10.5% above two years ago, so relatively unchanged as thin fuel margins still continue from the price drop of about a year ago that wiped off Triton

Entertainment: A bottle of Tusker beer (at local pub) is Kshs. 120 down from 130 three months ago. Prices seem to have stabilized though and with English football season on now, bars will not be changing prices anytime soon. East African Breweries year-end results showed that beer volumes were up just 1% for Kenya

Gotten more expensive
Staple Food: Maize flour which is used to make Ugali that is eaten by a majority of Kenyans daily. A 2 kg. Unga pack at Uchumi today costs Kshs. 84, 9% cheaper than 3 months, 15% up from a year ago, and 68% up in two years ago. Already there is worry about a grain shortage in the next few months, and the country may have to import some maize while awaiting the harvest from local farmers near the end of the year

Other food item: Sugar (2 kg. Mumias pack) is Kshs. 200 up 14% in 3 months, 38% in 1 year, 33% in 2 years, though it’s hard to say if sugar shortages are genuine or artificial; the annual importation exercise is a tug of war between politicians, tax man and importers.

Electricity/utilities: this month’s bill is Kshs 1,900 compared to 1,500 from three months ago. Still I can’t complain since compared to what some residents pay . The electricity rationing seems to have ended but at a cost since the new electricity is generated from more expensive thermal sources. The clean energy planned for Kenya- wind (Turkana, kengen) and sugar (Mumias), and mini-hydro’s (KTDA) will take a while to be felt in our bills.

Water rationing is still on going and the Nairobi water company said bills would increase from July 2009 onwards by about 50%.

Opportunities
most from the daily papers this week

SME Funding/Solutions
– For software developers from Microsoft through Local innovation centres unverified
– The Esther Passaris Grant is a monthly grant for Entrepreneurs. of between Kshs. 50,000 to 100,000 unverified
– Ongoing business plan competition jitihada closes 23/9
– Toolkit for learning: the IFC SME Toolkit Kenya

Jobs
– finally a blog -related job makes the newspapers – The British high commission in Nairobi is hiring a communications support officer part of whose job will include supporting the post webmaster in developing & maintain website, including the high commissioner’s blog through regular updates and site moderation. d/l is 23/9 and applications by snail mail only.
– Central Bank of Kenya : Accountants/ Financial Analysts, Finance Officers, Network Engineer, Network Administrator, Analyst/Programmer, Assistant Director: Policy Development And Research, Assistant Director, Academic Affairs, Finance Manager (2), Assistant Finance Manager (2), Internal Audit And Risk (manager, assistant manager, officer) and other jobs. D/L 25/9
– Equity Bank: Assistant HR Manager- Training & Development, Assistant HR- Services Manager D/L 19/9
– Apprentice engineers (20) at KPLC recruitment@kplc.co.ke by 7/10
– KIPPRA jobs not online Economists in Infrastructure & Economic Services (3 positions), Senior Analyst/Analyst, Assistant Analyst, Analyst, Assistant Analyst apply to admin @ kippra.or.ke by 21/9
– Safaricom : Senior customer systems analyst , senior manager – financial systems & analysis , principal accountant – treasury planning D/L 23/9

Tenders
The Kenya Government has asked all ministries, agencies, parastatals to e-mail in soft copes of any tenders or procurement notices they advertise in the newspaper. This will be displayed at a government procurement portal.

Despite Safaricom’s controversial, no frills, AGM, Kengen, the company with the second largest shareholder register (216,000) after Safaricom, is not going to let its members go home empty handed. They have a tender at their site for
supply of agm goods & services that closes on 24/9

Travel: Emirate Airlines have launched world cup travel packages for fans wishing to attend the 2010 world cup in south Africa; these combine air travel, hotel bookings in Johannesburg, cape town & Durban, and ground transport to stadiums.

Sporting Moment: GTV Out

GTV folds
It has been a bleak weekend for Kenyan sports – Gor Mahia lost 0 – 5 to a visiting team from Rwanda, Zimbabwe has now defeated Kenya four matches in a row in Cricket at Mombasa & Nairobi, but most shocking was the sudden shutdown/collapse of GTV – who for the last two years were the main broadcasters of the English soccer premier league in several African countries.

Their statement attributes the collapse to the ongoing global credit crunch, but their demise seems similar to that of Kirch Media who spent big in the late 90’s to acquire the rights to broadcast two World Cup events and also 100 years of formula one races among other media properties – but who folded shop a few years later in one of Germany’s biggest corporate collapses.

What next? I expect Multi-choice DSTV to step in and pay the liquidators of GTV about 30% and take over their broadcast rights in Africa (and perhaps hike their prices too), while in Kenya, a successful bid for GTV’s soccer rights could also be an opportunity for Wananchi’s Zuku to make a nationwide impact.

Business impact in sports
The local impact of the economic crisis is likely to be replicated in sports.

– The local soccer league did well last year (2008) with private interests participating and sponsoring the teams & competitions – there was huge fan interest, media interest (for once local radio stations actively previewed, reviewed and encouraged attendance of local soccer matches) and a private security firm (G4S) was in charge of the ticketing and match revenue collection.

But will the economic crisis affect things? Will sugar teams like Sony and Chemelil continue to support sports when even the only profitable company in the sector (Mumias) has profits down 80% this year? And what about Sher (Flower) and other small company-sponsored teams?

– The local motoring scene was mainly supported by KCB last year and fortunately, despite the bank’s ongoing problems – particularly with a fellow sponsor (Triton), they have agreed to also sponsor the 2009 rally season. However, the loss of Paris Dakar to South America shows the global nature of sports and that events (like the Safari Rally) can be translocated elsewhere if countries don’t pay attention to details of sports management. in 2009, pressure shifts to South Africa to progressively move nearer the completion of stadiums for the 2010 world cup.

– Rugby continues to be well-organized, attract top-notch sponsors, and the annual Safari Sevens is the premier sports event(party) – with Kenya’s Sevens Team off to participate in the IRB Sevens World Series next weekend.

Bad management
Another problem in Kenya is bad management – and while every sport has behind the scenes ramblings and wrangles, Kenya is no exception with motor sports, cricket and soccer feuds that have long been a distraction for the sports.

Also, all sports go through generational changes – and in the off-season, Athletics Kenya management went through elections that were well contested. However, in Kenya we need to have longevity of athletes, not management officials; it is rare to have someone (except for Catherine Ndereba) participate successfully at more than one Olympic event. Other countries stars like Haile Gebreselassie, Hicham El Guerrouj and Kenenisa Bekele have successfully represented their countries at consecutive Olympics – while in Kenya it is sad that it is mainly the officials who show such endurance – and that people who were ‘in charge’ of sports like soccer in the 1980’s and 90’s are still in charge today (Sammy Obingo, Sam Nyamweya) – and continue to bicker and blame each other for the problems in the sport.

Having recently read Foul, FIFA comes across as a corrupt institution that does not care about individual countries attempts to improve management of their sports affairs – FIFA wants to dictate who will be the local managers of soccer, and no matter how bad or corrupt they are, they are FIFA’s people who should not be interfered with unless a country wants to be suspended from regional or international soccer competitions.

EDIT: Feb 4 2009 – South Africa based DSTV SuperSport channel reclaimed the rights to broadcast live all English premier league matches, including those from collapsed GTV in 22 African countries over the next two seasons

Let UAP take you to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa

As the logistics and numbers of the 2010 World Cup become clearer, and after my brief trip to South Africa, it’s time to re-evaluate financial plans for the Cup and specifically take a fresh look at UAP who are the only company to so far come up with a targeted finance product.

I had looked at the UAP Insurance plan earlier and dismissed/rejected it on the basis of its marginal return. E.g. investing 5,000 shillings per month over next 42 months would give about 233,000 shillings at an assured internal rate of return of about 6%. However, of that, my own savings would be about 210,000 shillings (90%) while UAP would have chipped in only about 10%.

However it is important to note, and they state this in the 2010 product, that the package is a savings plan toward the World Cup, and not an investment plan and it is therefore wrong to compare the plan to an investment fund or unit trust.

The main benefits of saving with UAP come not from the investment return, but from their in-built package which includes discounted air tickets, discounted accommodation and a chance to (save &) travel with other Kenyans fans who could also be your friends. UAP will also bid for some of the limited numbers of tickets that will be made available here (from the quota allocated to Kenya) thus providing some assurance that the match tickets can be obtained beforehand at FIFA-recommended prices and not from scalpers at the last minute.

During my week in South Africa, in which the conference paid for hotel, air travel and some meals I still used about shillings 6,000 on upkeep, some meals, gifts, beers, newspapers etc. Accommodation at the hotel (bed and breakfast) – next to Johannesburg Airport was about 6,000 shillings and a roundtrip air ticket would probably have cost about 40,000 shillings. Food in SA was reasonable at about 300 per meal, but there were some unexpected bills like currency exchange which sometimes cost 300 or 600 shillings each.

All this makes UAP package 2010 World Cup South Africa plan look pretty attractive for a similar trip to SA four years from now. Or I could stay home and watch the games on DSTV or some local TV channel, but I’d rather be there in person.

No potholes for World Cup

South Africa has really incredible infrastructure.

Visiting from the airport to the highways to a dorm room in rural Rhodes University, you can almost feel that you’re in Zurich or Illinois i.e. in Europe or America, but not in Africa. Especially when your seat-mates on the plane are school kids flying in uniform back to their boarding schools, fresh from holidays in Spain and playing video games on new Sony vaio laptops.

Toyota corolla’s that are ex-Japan or via UAE (known at Dubai cars) are the most common cars in Kenya. Here in SA, its’ small Mercedes, BMW’s, Citroen, Opel, Peugeot’s and Toyota cars – many coupes and hatchbacks, with very few SUV’s on the road which indicates small families and good roads.

Roads range from 3 lane highways in the city to good equally good roads between towns that enable one to cruise in a matatu at about 100 km/h between towns.

 

One Kenyan commented on the (similarly good) infrastructure of Harare (Zimbabwe) with a joke that maybe Kenyans should not have been in a rush to independence and perhaps given the British more years to build up the infrastructure of Kenya.

So plan to be back in 2010 for the World Cup, Insha’Allah.

World Cup financial plan

I love attending sports events, especially major world events. I have been fortunate enough to attend grand prix races, NBA basketball games, football games, the Kenya vs. Sri Lanka (Cricket World Cup 2003) match, local rugby, the ill-fated Kenya vs. Morocco game, and others.

I have been fortunate to see live icons such as Michael Schumacher, Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods and others excel at their sports. And with the euphoria of the world cup, I have to seriously think about attending the next world cup in South Africa in 2010.

This will be as geographically close to Kenya as possible, and perhaps if our soccer bosses had got their act together, FIFA would have assigned some group matches to be played in Nairobi (like the Cricket World Cup in 2003). But our soccer administration remains a mess and SA is as close as Kenya will ever get to a major world event. not counting 2007 Mombasa X-country race

While we are busy waiting to see who the defending champions in 2010 will be, it is also time to make plans for such a trip – which will not be cheap. Air tickets, match tickets, hotel, restaurant, and entertainment, are some of the costs to be incurred. Air tickets are about $400 now – but will cost more because everyone will want to make a buck from the WC. E.g. a grand prix runs for 2 hours on Sunday, but hotels in the host city will typically require guests to book for a four-day weekend stay at an inflated rate.

I could sell cows, my car or all my shares, or throw in my savings to finance the trip. Even better, UAP insurance has put together a savings plan to enable Kenyan to meet the costs of such a trip. Even if I sign up with UAP but don’t go to SA, I will have still saved a huge chunk of money over the four years.

It is always fun to travel to such events in a group, so it is important to identify pals who can seriously plan and save to go for the event with me. I do have friends who I sit around and watch the world cup with every evening, and who say we will all be in SA in four years. But are they serious? Only time will tell.