M-Shwari clients to get mobile medical consultation services

The Commercial Bank of Africa (CBA) has partnered with an international mobile-health provider to offer its more than 11 million M-Shwari customers medical consultation services on their phones. Under the partnership the m-Health service provider Hello Doctor, a subsidiary of Metropolitan Health, will act as an assistant to local general practitioners when consumers want a quick healthcare reference…[...]

Pyrethrum farmers want new Agriculture minister

Pyrethrum farmers have raised the red flag as a leadership vacuum at the Agriculture ministry delays plans to open up the sector to more players. Through their lobby, the Pyrethrum Growers Association (PGA), the farmers have petitioned President Uhuru Kenyatta to appoint a Cabinet secretary to drive the sector’s liberalisation…[...]

Barclays allocates Sh30billion to Kenya's Small and Medium Enterprises

Barclays Bank has announced a Sh30billion war chest to lend to the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), as the bank moves to tap into the market that has been dominated by micro lenders. The bank Tuesday said it had dropped some of the stringent requirements that lenders demand from the SME market. For example, borrowers will no longer need to have audited financial statements to access the loans…[...]

Kim-Fay East Africa relocates, to build Sh2.5b plant and head office at Tatu City

Consumer products manufacturer Kim-Fay East Africa has broken ground for the development of a Sh2.5 billion plant and corporate headquarters in Tatu City, as it relocates its operations from Nairobi's Industrial Area. The firm that makes Huggies baby diapers and Cosy toilet rolls, has said the move has been occasioned by a need to expand production capacity to meet growing demand…[...]

Airtel Kenya unveils innovative digital content products

Airtel Kenya has announced the launch of two new innovative digital products. The Airtel Jam Sessions, a music show, and Airtel Future Shapers, a written feature on innovative young Kenyans, in a move aimed at providing great local multimedia content online for consumers as well as in support of people doing great work in the arts, culture and technology…[...]

Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) ordered to pay Rwandese businessman over Sh200m

Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) will have to pay over Sh200 million as damages to a Rwandese businessman whose trucks were held at a police station for close to four years. The taxman suffered a blow, twice, both at the High Court and Court of Appeal as it lost the case in which Hibamana Hemed was awarded the lump sum amount as a relief for losses he incurred when his transit lorries were held at Tigoni Police Station…[...]

Firms have until Friday to comply with new excise duty regulations

Manufacturers have until the end of business this Friday to comply with the set excise duty rules as the Kenya Revenue Authority’s two-week relief enters home stretch. The taxman, who had refused to grant manufacturers licenses over failure to fully comply with the law, is expected to release a new list detailing the authorised makers of goods…[...]

Insurers want a share of marine business

Insurance companies are seeking to have part of the expanding marine business, which is largely dominated by multinational insurers. The appetite for marine insurance by local firms comes at a time when the number of vessels docking at the Port of Mombasa is on the rise. Association of Kenya Insurers chief executive officer Tom Gichuhi said Kenya was losing huge foreign exchange by having nearly all the marine business going to foreign firms yet the segment has been posting growth every year…[...]

NSE's new plan to woo middle class

The Nairobi Securities Exchange is targeting a growing middle class in Kenya with a new investment vehicle to be introduced in the fourth quarter of this year. Plans to launch the Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) segment are at an advanced stage in a bid to deepen the capital markets, where less than 4 per cent of Kenyans are active participants…[...]