Shilling’s decline could scale down ballooning imports

The recent weakening of the shilling against the dollar could help address Kenya’s uncompetitive production of goods and reduce imports, economists at CfC Stanbic say. The shilling is still relatively strong in real exchange rate compared to the currencies of Kenya’s trading partners.This makes it more difficult for Kenyans to import goods that could be produced locally.Kenya’s main trading partners, including East African countries, the EU, India and China have seen their currencies fare worse against the dollar over the past one year [...]

NSE share index drops below 4800 psychological mark

The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) 20 share index has continued on a downward trend since the beginning of the week closing at 4790.5 points on Wednesday. The Nairobi bourse has performed poorly against its frontier markets peers due to the weakening of the shilling against the dollar and outflows to the Egyptian and Nigerian markets [...]

Weak euro eats into horticulture earnings

Horticulture exporters earned Sh1 billion less in the first quarter compared to a similar period in 2014, partly as a result of a weaker euro. Kenya Flower Council chief executive Jane Ngigi said exporters are not only facing reduced earnings due to the weaker euro compared to last year, but also face higher costs due to the stronger dollar which they use to pay for 70 per cent of their costs [...]

KQ hires American turnaround consultancy

Kenya Airways has hired an American consultancy to advise on the restructuring of its operations, as the management struggles to turn around the fortunes of the troubled airline.New York-based Seabury has been picked to evaluate KQ’s sales, ticketing and network planning functions and benchmark them with best practices in the airline industry.The Treasury last week announced that it would lend KQ Sh4.2 billion in an effort to help it surmount challenges brought about by “the Ebola epidemic and the slump in tourism [...]

Afia Juices owner acquires water bottling plant from Kenblest

Businessman KimaniRugendo has acquired the water bottling business of Thika-based bread maker Kenblest. MrRugendo, the owner of Afia Juices manufacturer Kevian Kenya, says the acquisition is aimed at raising his stakes in the water bottling business.Kevian Kenya has benefited from funding by international financiers such as Germany’s DEG [...]

Unpredictable business laws cause jitters in the growing mining

Local Mining firms are concerned with what they term as rapid-fire methods of Mining Cabinet Secretary NajibBalala, to the point that some are threatening to quit the country. Cortec Mining Kenya Ltd (CMK) management told Africa Mining Intelligence, a specialist publication for the mining industry in Africa, that it was thinking of hauling the Government before the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) to win compensation. Its licence was one of the 65 cancelled in mid-May by Balala[...]

Mastercard takes mobile payments to android devices

Google has unveiled Android Pay, which will enable MasterCard credit, debit, prepaid and small business cardholders to use their Android phones for everyday purchases in-store and within Android apps. This provides MasterCard cardholders with more options for paying on the go using their choice of mobile device [...]