Today, August 4th, is the final day for winners to collect their prizes in the Bambua Tafrija promotion. The company drew 77 winning numbers between April 18 and July 3. Not having been a winner myself despite my valiant efforts to succeed, I will now take a month-long vacation from their products to recover and reload.
Banking briefs
1%
August 31st is the deadline fro Banks to report their un-audited quarterly accounts as at June 30th. So far all nine Banks have posted profits at about 1% return on total assets – with Dubai Bank the highest so far at 3.38%.
Equity turnover
Many employees of Equity Bank may not see the may not see the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow that is the Bank’s IPO later this year as staff turnover is very high at the rapidly expanding Bank. Long working hours in extremely busy banking halls are the norm and unexcused employee absences often lead to instant dismissal
Upper Hill CBA
CBA new Upper Hill headquarters building should be ready late this year. Following the merger with First American, some Nairobi branches, and one in Mombasa will be closed next year.
Maximise Kencom
KCB will close its Tom Mboya and Moi Avenue branches. They will expand the Kencom banking hall, which has been underutilized for years. The KCB Card Centre has already been removed to Sarit Centre from the Moi Ave. branch which occupied two buildings.
Flat fee Banking
Flat fee bank accounts are the closest thing to free-checking accounts here. NIC was the first with MOVE (launched in November 2003) and since then other Bank’s have tried to imitate the MOVE concept whose main feature was an offer of a variety of bank transactions – all for a flat monthly fee. A comparison of the offers in order of rank;
1. Diamond Trust Open Plan:(490/= shillings per month)
Diamond Trust Open Plan includes ATM card, one chequebook each year inward salary processing, unlimited deposits & withdrawals from ATM and quarterly statement internal transfers. The Bank also has Open Air: (For 690/=) which comes with spouse ATM card, free internet banking, 2 chequebooks a year, and monthly statement) and Open Sky: (For 790/=) which offers one a designated relationship manager, 3 chequebooks a year, 1 free bankers cheque per month and unlimited standing orders inclusive of loan instalments to other banks. DTB currently has 11 ATM locations (9 in Nairobi).
2. NIC Move (800/= month)
MOVE includes a free ATM Card, 50-leaf cheque book, incoming salary transfers, monthly Standing orders & direct debits, one free Bankers’ cheque per month, internet banking, monthly statement, SMS Banking and MOVE Zone Locations have loan/account representatives and self-help PC available from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. MOVE has 13 (11 in Nairobi) ATM locations.
3. Standard Chartered All-in-One (750/= per month)
Stanchart includes ATM card, chequebooks, standing orders, local/foreign telegraphic transfer, traveller’s cheques, local ATM withdrawals, free foreign currency purchase/sale, free DEBIT card and one free banker’s cheque per month. Has the largest ATM network (58) out of the four banks.
4. CFC (Saturday only)
CFC Bank has some transactions free on Saturdays only including interim statements, chequebooks, banker’s cheques/drafts, and traveller’s cheques. (All are subject to minimum balance of 10,000 maintained throughout the month, otherwise a fee of Kshs. 500 per month applies)
Safaricom makes a better offer
With the cost of calls being very expensive, I have adopted a policy of only making phone calls at night, while sending SMS’s only during the day, unless I really have to. Now Safaricom has made things better for me by cutting the price of a daytime SMS’s by 50% – they will cost 2.50 each between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. until October 31st.
Currency printing in Africa
From Africa Investor magazine’s May – August 2005 edition. (I’d link to this article about currency printing in Africa, titled “Paper Wealth,” by Neil Ford but it’s not available online). By his research, the top currency companies in Africa are:
1. De La Rue (UK) (45% of the African market)
2003 results: Sales 211 million pounds (banknotes and paper only)
Net income 30.4 million pounds – and dividend of 13.6 p per share
One of the biggest producers and suppliers of bank notes, printing 150 national currencies worldwide and has supplied notes to Africa since 1860 when it delivered notes to Mauritania. Has a production plant in Kenya and paid a dividend of Euros 23 million in 2004. The company plans to do better and is undergoing a restructuring that will see it dispose of non-core businesses to improve productivity.
2 Giesecke & Devrient (G&D) (35% of the African market)
2003 results: Sales (banknotes and paper only) Euros 588 million with Europe, Middle East and Africa business being Euros 479 million
Net income Euros 28.8 million
Is the 2nd largest private sector supplier of paper money in Africa, and printed four billion banknotes last year. Has secured contracts from Nigeria, Ghana, Rwanda, Tanzania, Kenya, and others and has an office in Cairo and operations in SA and Nigeria.
3. Francois-Charles Oberthur Fiduciaire (FCOF) (10% of the African market)
2003 results: Sales (banknotes and paper only) Euros 60 million
African business Euros 30 million
This French firm has activities in 70 countries worldwide but has achieved most of its success in Francophone Africa.
Other players are:
ANB (US)
The Canadian Bank Note Company
Crane (Sweden)
Enschede (Netherlands)
Orell Fuessli (Switzerland)
In summary, low production costs make Africa an attractive place to set up printing facilities.