Telecom firms to pay hefty penalties for poor service

Telecom firms are set to start paying between 0.1 to 0.2pc of their annual revenue instead of Sh500,000 flat rate as penalties for providing substandard services to customers. CA director-general stated that the current fine was too lenient and has failed to make the operators comply and through introduction of the fines has followed in the footsteps of Nigeria and Rwanda. A firm like Safaricom, which has in the past failed the CA quality tests, would pay Sh288 million based on its annual revenue of Sh144.7 billion should the board opt for the 0.2 per cent charge [...]

Britam contracts Equity, Family banks to sell pension scheme

Britam has contracted Equity and Family banks to sell its pension scheme to small and medium firms in the first such deal in the financial sector. Britam will run the business under Britam Asset Managers (BAM), which is allowed to invest in riskier businesses unlike the guaranteed pension scheme now running under its insurance business. Under the arrangement, the banks will receive commission for SMEs it introduces to the scheme giving it incentive to push the product through their staff [...]

KRA eyes higher capital gains tax on land deals

The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) is still aiming to levy the capital gains tax on land if lobbying to adjust buying cost for inflation (indexation) bears fruit. Indexation means adjusting the cost, mostly upward, reducing the gain tax liability for buyers who acquired land at what today sounds ridiculously low price. The capital gains tax guidelines issued by KRA exempt any land sale where the proceeds are less than Sh30,000 (virtually non-existent today) as well as sale of less than 100 acres of rural agricultural land [...]

Turkana wind project lifts Vestas’ turbine sales

The Danish power firm sold the 365 wind turbines with a combined capacity of 310 megawatts in December, which accounted for 13.75 per cent of all orders made as measured by capacity. US, Kenya, Poland and Germany were the main contributors to order intake in quarter four 2014 accounting for almost 60 per cent of sales for the company. A consortium that includes KP&P BV Africa, Aldwych International Limited, Vestas, Norfund, Finnfund and the Danish Investment Fund for Developing Countries is financing the project [...]

UK company in M-Pesa deal raises Sh9.13bn for growth

WorldRemit, a UK company facilitating Kenyans in the diaspora to directly send money to M-Pesa accounts, has raised Sh9.13 billion to fund its global expansion. The remittances firm said it would use the funds to allow users send cash from 50 countries to recipients in 117 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Mobile money transfer is becoming the preferred channel of transmission compared to banks and agencies [...]

Industrialisation CS launches Sh600 million production line for car batteries

The Cabinet Secretary for Industrialisation and Enterprise Development, Adan Mohammed has launched locally manufactured maintenance-free car batteries in Kenya and the East African Region. The battery is manufactured by Associated Battery Manufacturers (ABM) and will now be available throughout the East, Central and Southern Africa region [...]

Kenya Power profit up 53pc on higher tariffs
Kenya Power posted a 53 per cent rise in first-half profit helped by higher sales and tariffs, indicating that it would focus on increasing new customers to sustain its earnings. The company which owns and operates most of the electricity transmission and distribution system in the country said its pretax profit rose to Sh6.4 billion from Sh4.2 billion for the six months to the end of December. The firm attributed the improved revenue performance to sales growth and tariff increase [...]