Opportunities – February 3

from the daily papers this week

jobs

Principal consultant – corporate financial services at Deloitte Tanzania. Apply to dloitte@deloitte.co.tz by 16/3

East African Breweries: marketing manager (MM/MD/02.07), brand manager (BM/MD/02.06). apply to hr.recruitment@eabl.com by 14/2

East African Cables: marketing manager (MM/07), group procurement & logistics manager (GPLM/07) and other engineering positions. Apply to hr@eacables.com by 10/2

Family Finance: Apply online for company secretary, works officer, and executive secretary by 16/2

Hilton Hotel: Managers (operations, credit, Food & Beverage, Sales Account), Internal Auditor, Trainees (front office, F&B). send one page CV to nbohitwhrd@hilton.com

Government of Kenya: Account managers (210 positions) at the Constituency Development Fund national management committee secretariat to be based at constituency level. Applicants must be degree holders with accounting or project management experience, good computer skills, and be under 45 years of age. Those selected will undergo 3-month probation after which they will be awarded 3-year contracts. Apply to cdf@wananchi.com by 28/2

IFC (modern lighting program): senior program manager (Kenya or Ghana), program manager Kenya. details online D/L is 24/2

Head of forensics (HF/32/07) at KCB. Apply through KPMG at esd@kpmg.co.ke by 16/2

Simba technology limited: functional consultant – oracle e business suite (3
positions), functional consultants Orion enterprise/advantage (3), functional consultants – banking (2), functional consultants – insurance (3). Apply to jobs@simbanet.co.ke by 10/2 ( REF: 150106)

UNDP Kenya election assistance program: communications & education specialist, finance officer, procurement officer, and administrative associate. Apply to jobs.ke@undp.org by 7/2

scholarships
Aga Khan Foundation: for development -related overseas postgraduate apply by
(50% grant 50% loan payable 5 years after completion that covers tuition & living expenses only) . D/L for applications to the Nairobi office is 15/3

Ford foundation: Details at international fellowship program and D/L is 9/3

Banking law amended in 2007

The banking amendment act (2006) and finance act (2006) were gazetted in January 2007. Some changes that will affect the banking system in a busy year, in addition to possible merger activity, include;

– Ban on bank charges within savings accounts. In fact banks must pay interest as long as the account minimums are maintained
– Section 44A (in duplum rule) – banks can only recover principal amount lent, interest to an amount not exceeding principal, and recovery expenses from bad debts. (Fortunately for banks this will not be applied retroactively)
– CBK gets a deputy governor appointed by the president
– CBK also gets to vet the professional and moral suitability of owners (of more than 5%), directors, and senior managers of banks
– All banks must get permission from the finance minister to open branches or establish subsidiaries outside Kenya
– Banks are allowed to invest in real estate. They can also hold land for as long as it takes to realize/recover debt
– Allows sharing of non performing assets information with the Central bank, others banks and credit reference bureaus

Report & Reduce Corruption

The latest quarterly report from the Kenya Anti Corruption Commission (KACC) report was buried under a ton of criticism owing to the fact that it was perceived to continue the Anglo-Leasing cover-up.

Kenyans should face up to the fact that KACC is here to stay, regardless of who is in charge and use it to fight corruption – by reporting what they observe & perceive to be corrupt activities.

In the absence of proper whistle blower protection in the country, the commission has made it possible to report corruption anonymously (even by e-mail) which should trigger investigations such as those mentioned (in the quarterly report)that range from alleged CEO shopping demands to lowly clerks asking for bribes.

One weak point of KACC is that they only make public reports once their investigations are complete. They should also mention ongoing investigations and give a chance to more people to come forward, give evidence, and build stronger cases.

Unfortunate reference
In reading on the Citigroup/ CNBC ethical debate, I came upon the phrase Ugandan Discussions – an unfortunate slang term which demeans a country.

Musical Chairs

After steering Kenya Commercial Bank to profitability, respectability and restoring shareholder confidence (a long process that began with Gareth George), KCB group CEO Terry Davidson could be on his way out. The bank had advertised for the group CEO position as Davidson’s contract will expire in mid 2007. Applications should be sent to Manpower Associates (Naiorbi) within the next two weeks. Who will replace him? Only a career banker can, as the JD specified applicants must be under 50 years of age and have worked in banking for at least 15 years, with at least 10 in senior management. In 2005, KCB created the post of deputy CEO and selected former finance permanent secretary, Martin Oduor Otieno who still holds the job.

Also looking for new leadership is the (about to have an IPO) Kenya Reinsurance Corporation which has also advertised to replaced their suspended managing director and head of finance. (Interested? Apply to jobs@biz-ideas.biz by 16/2)

Recovery Week

Out of hospital and recovering this week and trying to catch up after two weeks away from a computer. Missed so much, mailboxes are full, have to send proper replies, and most of the news links are now out-dated and need to be refreshed.

It was a pleasant week, whose main difficulty was the passage to time. I read many books and consulted Dr. Hannibal Lecter who had spent 8 years in one room.

Describe a share investor
The Economist published a series on executive compensation and ran a quote from 17 years ago that can be used to accurately describe (we) investors who speculate on shares;

To a shareholder in a typical company, a share is little more than a betting slip. It is bought at what a shareholder thinks are good odds to provide winnings he hopes will be large.

The notion that he owns part of a company makes as much sense to him as it would for the average gambler to imagine he owns part of a horse running in a 2:30 race.

A title deed to a house tells someone what he knows instinctively – that he owns the place and must care for it. A share certificate tells him nothing more than that he has the right to a dividend and the chance to make some cash.

Tiomin sells out
Tiomin will sell ATW Venture Corp. a 50% interest in the Kenyan mineral sands for US$35 million to raise funds owing to cost escalations.

Githongo blog
He must be wondering what he has to do to get his point, but after putting up a blog he should be very careful

Stanbic Results
With over 1 billion shares on offer and despite the over-subscription, there’s won’t be too many complaints about allocation;
– Uganda nationals get full allocation up to 2.15 million shares
– Others (including Kenyans) get full allocation up to 109,500 shares (about 312,000 shillings)[But the stock exchange there trades for (I think) 3 days a week]

Sky please
After years of getting (and under appreciating) SKY news of Britain, the local STV channel has taken it down and replaced it with VOA TV. There’s no apparent reason why VOA should be broadcasting as there’s nothing I’ve seen that is newsworthy or worth tuning in for.

Opportunities

Jobs

International director of fund raising at AMREF. Details here and apply through olga@crsearchandselection.com by 9/2

Financial controller at Children’s International. Apply through KPMG at esd@kpmg.co.ke by 2/2

Senior project officers (2) at EADB Nairobi. Apply to the Kenya country manager at box 47685 by 16/2

Housing Finance: Manager [HR], assistant manager[legal], officer [insurance]. Apply to human.resources@housing.co.ke by 3/2

I&M Bank: Details here for Cashiers [Tellers], Liability Manager, Trade Finance Officer, and Relationship Manager [Assets].

Marshalls: General Manager (Tata), General Manager (KIA/Honda), Marketing Manager. Apply through Dagger Consultants at gd@africaonline.co.ke by 9/2

National Oil Corporation: Various jobs including customer service assistant, ICT manager and internal audit assistant. Apply to hr@nockenya.co.ke by 13/2

NIC Bank: Nakuru [business development manager, sales executives (2), branch advances officer, branch customer service officer], Mombasa [service delivery manager], Nairobi [Corporate relationship manager]. Apply to the Head of HR 44599-00100 Nairobi by 7/2

Finance manager at Sense International – Nairobi. Apply to info@senseint-ea.org by 2/2

Finance manager at Tearfund – Nairobi. Apply to internationaljob@tearfund.org by 31/1

Other

KCB is seeking new ATM machines to expand its network into the hundreds.

The Nairobi Stock Exchange will conduct a Market Index Review via a consultancy.

Associate consultants at the influential Steadman Group. Apply to md@steadman-group.com