Mumias slashes staff allowances, freezes pay increments
Troubled Mumias Sugar Company has halved senior staff allowances and frozen pay increments as it struggles to climb out of the deep pit of losses it fell into two years ago. Mumias managing director Coutts Otollo informed staff of the changes, part of a restructuring process initiated by the board, in an internal memo dated February 13. Sources indicated that the allowances of top executives, which vary according to departments, have been chopped in excess of Sh100,000 per month [...]

Kidero exits Uchumi top shareholders’ list
Nairobi governor Evans Kidero has exited the top shareholder’s list of Uchumi Supermarkets as billionaire investor Paul Wanderi Ndung’u raised his stake in the retailer to 5.4 per cent, making him the largest individual investor. Mr Kidero disappeared from Uchumi’s list of top owners in February, signaling that he either sold his 234,577 shares or was heavily diluted in the recent cash call that saw the retailer issue 99.5 million new shares [...]

Interbank lending surges as firms pay income tax
The financial markets were tight last week with banks forced to raise their borrowing from each other by 20 per cent to Sh15.7 billion. The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) said in its weekly update that interest rate banks charge each other went up as there was a lot of cash diverted into government accounts through tax payments [...]

Treasury sharply increases CBK overdraft
The government sharply increased its overdraft from the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) four-fold in the week ended April 1 compared to the previous week. The Central Bank of Kenya borrowed Sh32.7 billion up from Sh8.2 billion taken in the week ending March 26. This was the third highest borrowing taken in any one week since January this year. One of the reasons for the large borrowing is the need to pay salaries for its employees due to a high wage [...]

NSSF narrows gap with Pinebridge on 8pc assets growth
NSSF has narrowed the gap with top fund manager Pinebridge Investments after assets under management grew by nearly eight per cent in the year to June 2014. Industry data puts the size of assets under the National Social Security Fund’s management at Sh147.7 billion, compared to assets worth Sh161.8 billion under private fund manager Pinebridge [...]

Kenyan firms earn Sh10.63bn from Tullow Oil deals
Kenyan companies earned slightly over half the Sh20.8 billion Tullow Oil used to buy goods and services from local suppliers in 2014. The oil and gas exploration firm said it used $225 million (Sh20.8 billion) for its local content programme and out of this, Kenyan companies accounted for $115 million (Sh10.63 billion) or 51 per cent of this spending [...]

Equity’s mobile money arm registers twice as many customers as Orange
Equity Bank, the latest entrant in the mobile money industry, managed to register nearly 400,000 subscribers in the first three months of operation surpassing one of the top three mobile operators. Equity’s mobile virtual network operator Finserve Africa Limited had 394,606 subscribers as of December 2014 compared to 190,129 on Telkom’s Orange Money. Equity is now close to Tangaza (503,556 customers) but significantly behind Mobikash, Airtel Kenya and industry leader Safaricom who have 1.5 million, 3.2 million and 20.1 million mobile money users respectively [...]

Britam wins Nyayo Stadium branding rights in Sh100m deal
Britam plans to spend Sh40 million to repaint the popular stadium in its corporate colours, with the balance of the cash going towards refurbishment and paying the facility’s management for the rights. Financial services firm Britam has won branding rights for Nyayo National Stadium in a deal worth over Sh100 million, taking over from soft drinks manufacturer Coca-Cola