Category: East Africa
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Kenya:Bamburi Cement profit flat at Sh5.89bn on tight competition
Cement maker Bamburi Group has reported flat growth in its after-tax profit, citing falling demand in domestic and regional markets as well as rising competition. The Nairobi Securities Exchange-listed company recorded a profit after tax of Sh5.89 billion for the year ended December 2016, a 0.3 per cent rise over the profit recorded during a…
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Kenya:KCB takes new dividend path with Sh9bn payout
KCB Group yesterday shook Kenya’s besieged banking industry with the announcement of a Sh9.1 billion dividend payout for the year ended December 2016, the largest ever by a financial services firm. The bank, which is Kenya’s largest by assets, announced it was paying shareholders a dividend of Sh3 per share, a 50 percent increase from…
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Kenya to clear more hurdles before direct flights to US can begin
Kenya must still clear several regulatory hurdles before direct or nonstop flights to the United States can begin, officials in Washington have indicated. The Category 1 designation awarded last month by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) was the result of an assessment of Kenya itself, not any particular airlines or airports, FAA spokeswoman Alison…
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Botswana seeks to attract investors to mining town with tax cut
Botswana will cut corporate tax by up to 77 percent for investors in a mining town southeast of the capital, the trade and industry minister said on Tuesday, part of a package to attract them to a region hit by the collapse of BCL Mine. BCL Mine was put under provisional liquidation in October last…
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Kenya:Markets regulator gets nod to probe auditors of Uchumi
The High Court has allowed the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) to proceed with investigations of Ernst & Young, which has been accused of helping to cook Uchumi Supermarkets’ books together with the retailer’s former managers. A forensic audit report by KPMG showed that Uchumi’s accounts for financial years 2010 to 2014 and an information memorandum…
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Botswana retailer raids Nakumatt for chief executive
Botswana retailer Choppies has head-hunted a senior Nakumatt Supermarkets manager to serve as chief executive of the struggling Kenyan unit. The Gaborone-based retail giant – which owns 75 per cent of loss-making Ukwala Supermarkets – has hired Vijay Kumar to run the Kenyan business. Mr Vijay previously served as chief financial officer at Nakumatt, a…
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Kenya:KenGen sets stage for higher power bills with plea to ERC
Consumers are set to pay more for electricity after power producer KenGen sought the energy regulator’s greenlight to recover costs of maintenance of power plants through higher bills. The State-owned company wants the nod from the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to pass on the tariffs for its hydropower stations following recent upgrades. Maintenance costs refund…
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Kenya:Price fixing is the lifeline of insurers, says regulator
The insurance industry regulator says that several motor vehicle underwriters could collapse if minimum customer premium charges are removed. The Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA), in court filings intended to defend price fixing in the industry, says the price floors were introduced after several motor vehicle insurers faced collapse after undercutting competitors without considering that insuring…
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Nairobi:Facebook takes on telcos with low-cost Internet
US tech giant Facebook has switched on its low-cost Internet in Nairobi, stepping up competition for telecommunication firms which earn significant revenue from users of the social networking site. ‘Express Wifi’ by Facebook, which is a joint project with Surf, a local Internet service provider, went live in Nairobi and its environs about three weeks…
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Kenya:KenGen sets stage for higher power bills with plea to ERC
Consumers are set to pay more for electricity after power producer KenGen sought the energy regulator’s greenlight to recover costs of maintenance of power plants through higher bills. The State-owned company wants the nod from the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to pass on the tariffs for its hydropower stations following recent upgrades. Maintenance costs refund…