(Corrected) B-School Kenya info

Stanford MBA information session
Tuesday, 11 October 2005 18:00–20:00
Nairobi Hilton Hotel

Spend an evening learning about the MBA Program at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. During the information session, you will get an overview of the program from an admissions officer, hear insights on the MBA experience from alumni, and have an opportunity to ask questions. Seating is limited, so please register online.

Thanks to Okomboli Ong’ong’a, MBA candidate, class of 2006, Stanford graduate school of business, for the correction.

StrathmoreAlumni Reunion Weekend
Strathmore University Alumni include all past students of (the former) Kianda College, of (the former) Strathmore College, and of Strathmore University who have completed a programme of study for the award of a degree, diploma or certificate.

Friday, 7th October 2005
Venue Hilton Hotel Ballroom
7pm – 10pm Arrival & Registration Dinner
Keynote Speech Prof. Paul Manasseh Nshuti, Minister of Commerce, Industry & Cooperatives, Republic of Rwanda (former Lecturer, Strathmore College)
Closing Speech George Njenga, Director, Strathmore Business School
Tickets Single: Kshs. 1,500 Couple: Kshs. 2,500
Dress Code Formal

Saturday, 8th October 2005
Venue Strathmore Auditorium, Phase II
9.00am Arrival & Ongoing Registration
9.30am University Campus tour (ongoing)
Video (ongoing)
10.30am Tea and socialising
11.30am – 12.30pm “Strathmore University in the 21st Century”, Professor John Odhiambo, Vice Chancellor
12.45pm – 2.30pm Lunch
Photo Session
Entertainment: University Choir
2.30pm – 4.30pm Visits to Strathmore Asili and Kianda School
Departure and tour for Strathmore “Asili” Lavington Campus
Departure and tour for Kianda School (formerly Kianda College)
Sports for Alumni and Activities for children – including basketball, hockey, soccer, volleyball
3.00pm – 4.00pm Lecture by Dr Davy Koech, Chairman, Kenya Medical Research Institute
4.30pm Strathmore Alumni Association – Class Representatives Council Meeting
4.45pm – 6pm Refreshments with former classmates and former teachers
Tickets Single: Kshs. 1,500 Couple/Family: Kshs. 3,000
Dress Code Smart Casual
Special Rates (Combined Tickets for Friday and Saturday)
Single: Kshs. 2,500
Couple/Family: Kshs. 5,000

Slow Week

VoIP for all
Effective October 11th, all existing ISP licences will be amended by the Communications Commission of Kenya allowing providers to offer VoIP services.

Mystery IPO
While Kengen continues to stream roll its way to the NSE, much less is known about the Equity Bank IPO.

Safari conned
Many more people are now signing up for Safaricom’s post-paid service which offers cheaper call rates of about 10 shillings per minute all day. But many of these new subscribers are not aware that they may be entitled to a new phone under the package offer – presumably some dealers are pocketing, and then re-selling these phones.

Enable business mobile
The Nation media group (through Safaricom) now offers access to its business directory. Send an SMS “GET bankelele” to 2102 and you’ll get the telephone number of a business at a cost of 10/= per request.

Beyond the Eclipse
Russia is planning to launch a rocket from an Italian satellite platform located at San Marco, on the Kenyan coastline.

Happy Monday

KQ undoing?: Kenya Airways had many passengers inconvenienced by the airport closing on Saturday morning. But there have also been many incidents of overbooking (especially on the Nairobi-Mombasa route), passengers being deplaned, missing luggage, neglect by staff and hate mail campaigns. This “don’t care” attitude among staff is a product of rumours of imminent retrenchment and the matter should be urgently addressed by KQ management.

Media debate: The Media Council of Kenya (MCK) will hold its monthly public forum at the Stanley on October 4th at 5:30 PM to discuss a media code of conduct during the referendum period.

NCBDA AGM: The Nairobi Central Business District Association (NCBDA) will hold an annual general meeting on October 5th at 2:30 PM at the Hilton. On the agenda are election of new governing council members, amendments to the association articles, auditor, financial, and other issues.

Embassy Sale: The former US Embassy building on Mombasa Road, which was used for a couple of years after the ’98 Embassy bombing, has been put up for sale. It can be viewed on October 12th by prospective buyers who are expected to bid not less than $500,000 (36.5 million shillings) for the building.

Way to Go: Controversial road contractor Sunil Behal died in murky circumstances over the weekend. I wonder how I will go when my time comes.

Admin issues: A creeping problem of spam comments at Bankelele became a full blown attack crisis over the weekend. As such, “word verification” will now be required before comments can be posted to this site. Asante sana kwa wale Wakenya ambao wameandika maneno mazuri na ya maana hapa – mudendeee hivyo vivyo.

Car shopping: week one

I have finally gotten serious about looking for a car. My Budget is low but my goal is to get a trouble free used car, clean with spares readily available, easily serviceable and fuel efficient, to run-around town – for less than 300,000 shillings.

Stats from week one:
Private sellers I called: 4
Dealers I talked to: 1
Cars I looked at: 2
Expenses to date: 2,000 for my mechanic to inspect one promising car
Banks I talked to: 3

Lessons I learnt:
1. Banks usually don’t lend for car buying, unless it’s a new car and expensive or a fleet (that’s what we call asset finance)
2. I may have to get a personal loan, but interest rates are now around 20% for those and you have to have a history (operate and account and process your salary there) with most banks.
3. New cars can be very problematic – because of all the computer and electronic gizmos they have. My mechanic told me about cars in his yard that owners have temporarily abandoned because neither he, nor the authorized local dealers, have been able to diagnose or fix an electronic engine problem. So older–era cars are ok, i.e. pre-Y2K
4. Many good buy cars have problematic logbooks, and dubious ownership histories.
5. Kenya is Toyota country, and half the cars being sold in the newspaper classified are 5- to 10-year-old Toyota’s that sell from 500,000- 800,000.

Drink Beer

While the debate in Kenya is on whether to legalize traditional alcohol, one in Iran is much more potent

Split strategy
Standard Bank of South Africa (Stanbic) which has expressed interest in acquiring a significant stake in the National Bank of Kenya has at the same time entered a partnership with Postbank another giant stumbling bank. It is difficult to picture a Stanbic corporate customer visiting a Postbank lobby.

Pay-per-read
As the New York Times has gone ahead and made the op-ed columns and some daily articles subscriber only, the East African Standard has done the same, making Pulse, the Financial Standard, and other daily magazines as digital editions available to subscribers only. Content is displayed in the exact format as the print version, with searchable text, at a cost of $216 for year – much more than the equivalent of buying the Standard every day for a year ($173)

The Daily Nation also offers digital versions of their paper via NewsStand featuring the exact soft copy and advertisements at about $234 a year. Both the Standard and Nation are offered through NewsStand alongside other papers like the New York Times (8 weeks for $20), USA Today (13 weeks for $32) and the Harvard Business Review ($118).

Uchumi Countdown
Friday is the last day to participate in the Uchumi right issue, which is expected to be quite successful after a slow start.

Patriotic Moment
The Government intends to come up with a 2 – 4 word catchphrase to be featured in an about to be launched international television campaign to market Kenya. It can be in English or Kiswahili, and should sum up what it is that makes it great to be Kenyan. You can e-mail suggested phrases here.

WB Quiz
Here’s another project information document from the World Bank, this time on the education sector. The quiz is to decipher the following acronyms: ABE ACU ASAL CIDA DEB DFID EMIS ERS ERSSC FPE FPESP IDA INSET JFA JRM KESI KESSP LRC LSPMDG M&E MOEST MOF MPER MTEF NER NFE NFEC NFS NSIMP ODL PCR PID PRGF PTTC SACMEQ SAGA SbTD SIDA SIG SPRED SWAP TIVET TLWHA TMU TTC and UPE.