Kenya’s Money in the Past: Diners Finance

Found an annual report from Diners Finance from year 1989.  Just 12 pages long, it ended in November as the institution commenced operations on 1 December 1988.
Other excerpts 

Diners management

  • Diners had Kshs 200 million in assets, fixed assets were 1.8 million (1%), advances (loans) were 25%, and liquid assets were Kshs 143 M(71%).
  • The assets included Kshs 15M  million in cash, 104M on short call, 23 M in treasury bills and 49 M in advances (loans)
  • They had public deposits of 176 million from  674 depositors.
  • The deposits and total assets are listed month by month from December 1988 to November 1989
  • The profit before and after tax was Kshs 831,970. Elsewhere, there was a mention of Kshs 109,000 losses that were to be offset against future taxes
  • The directors were Alnoor Kassam (Chairman), and F. Levene who served from December 1988 till he resigned in March 1989, the same date on which A. Virjee was appointed. The secretary was Samvir management services. The accounts were audited by “Certified Public Accountants” and the audit cost Kshs 75,000. Elsewhere Peat Mawrwick are listed as the auditors.
  • In his printed comments, the chairman noted that this was their first year of operation, and a very competitive one… increased oil prices and falling coffee prices affected the level of credit available. the shilling also fell greatly and the government in a bid to control inflation and reduce the budget deficit, continued to issue treasury bonds in large quantities and at high interest rates that banks could not match – and this reduced the amount of money available to other sectors of the economy. Diners finance extra services
  • Central Bank allowed banks to charge up to 18% for lending over 3 years and up to 15.5% for loans with repayments of less than 3 years.
  • While commercial banks paid little or no interest to their current account holders, Diners was one of the first institutions to advertise in the media for individual depositors at attractive rates of interest. The incentive resulted in deposits of Kshs 170 million from 674 depositors ensuring a well-spread deposit base with an excellent foundation for Diners growth.
  • The book was designed and produced by ScanAd & Marketing and printed by Majestic.
  • in 1989,  US$1 was ~Kshs 19