Tobacco farmers to lose as sponsor scales down operations

Global raw tobacco merchant, Alliance One International, has announced plans to scale down its operations in Kenya, a move expected to hit farmers hard. Its core operations involve sponsoring farmers to produce tobacco mainly in Migori County, processing and exporting to the international market. The international firm has attributed the need to scale down its Kenyan operations to the substantial shift in the global supply and demand of Flue-Cured Virginia tobacco [...]

Lender: Kenya shilling’s slide is nothing to panic over

Policymakers have the ability to temper the Kenya shilling exchange rate volatility and that the economy does not exhibit signs of overheating. This assurance was given yesterday by Phumelele Mbiyo, Regional Head, Macroeconomic Research at Standard Bank, South Africa. The bank is represented in Kenya through its subsidiary CfC Stanbic Bank. The US dollar is strong across the board owing to expectations that Fed, the US Central bank tightening is imminent while the local unit has outperformed most trading partner currencies hence no need for panic in the local forex market [...]

New Microsoft wireless tech faces delays

Microsoft’s bid to commercialise low-cost wireless Internet being tested in Laikipia and Nanyuki could take longer after the industry regulator said laws to monitor such technology are not yet in place. The US tech giant is piloting the technology by connecting rural residents in Nanyuki and Laikipia to the Internet through TV white space—the unused portions of wireless spectrum in the frequency bands— used for television broadcasting [...]

Uber Kenya to begin taking cash, mobile money payments

Taxi hailing firm Uber has added cash and mobile money payment options to its service in Nairobi in a bid to grow the number of users. The change is meant to target users that are not comfortable having their debit or credit card details online [...]