Kenya's Transcentury swings into 2.11 bln shillings loss in 2014

Transcentury reported on Friday a pretax loss of 2.11 billion shillings ($22.42 million) for 2014, after posting a 859 million shillings profit the previous year. It blamed the loss on a 36 percent drop in revenue from its engineering division, caused by delays in some projects [...]

APA Insurance profit jumps 38 per cent

APA Insurance has announced a 38 per cent growth in its profits before tax for the year ended December 31, 2014, citing increased incomes from a strong performance of its investments. The firm’s profit before tax climbed to Sh838 million, up from Sh609 million recorded in a similar period last year, with the Kenyan operations generating about 91 per cent of the profits [...]

TransCentury lays foundation for future

African Infrastructure Company, TransCentury Group, has announced its three-year growth strategy. The plan, which is largely driven by its Power Division's capacity expansion programme, Engineering Division's strong and well-balanced pipeline of projects and the newly established Infrastructure Division, is expected to will see the firm expand into power generation and annuity/toll road projects, among others. The firm had already embarked on its growth strategy and had signed a Power Purchasing Agreement with Kenya Power for geothermal power generation in Menengai [...]

Higher prices for Kenyan coffee expected

Prices of Kenyan coffee in the global market are forecast to start a steady climb on growing demand for high quality beans, a leading exporter has projected. Higher coffee prices would be a major boost for the country's struggling exports market where thousands of coffee farmers have already ditched the plant for alternative crops and real estate development after a price slump witnessed in the 1990s. Kenya’s competitive advantage has always been quality since it has never been a large producer [...]

Relief for farmers as Swiss commodity trader Ecom partner key players to revive ailing coffee sub-sector

Swiss commodity trader Ecom Agroindustrial has announced a partnership with five firms to support revival of Kenya coffee sector. The arrangement aims to help create a viable smallholder coffee farming systems to regain its vitality and assure long term sustainability for smallholder farmers. The Government has expressed concern that Kenya might lose its position in the global market owing to sharp decline in coffee production. The partnership comes at a time when coffee production in the country has decreased by more than 50 per cent in the last 20 years due to lower market prices [...]

Trade associations face crackdown, Sh10m fine for unethical practices

Starting June this year, the regulator will publish in the Kenya gazette, a notice requiring all business member organizations to hire independent assessors to interrogate their business processes to encourage sound competition. Agriculture and Financial services sectors are mostly targeted because of their substantial input to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The sector associations will be compelled to probe their rules, practices and procedures as part of disassociating themselves from cartels that have been minting billions of shilling through immoral trade behavior [...]

Africa urged to lower aviation levies in spurring sector growth

Africa’s promising aviation industries are losing their share of the $2.4 trillion (Sh223 trillion) pie that global airlines net annually due to the continent’s high operational costs that has impeded its growth. High taxes on fuel, airport changes and prohibitive fee charged on handling passengers levied by African governments has disrupted the sector their its contribution to the respective countries GDP growth has been minimal [...]