Total, Shell and Kenol cede more market share to small dealers

Kenya’s top-three oil marketing companies saw their combined market share in Kenya drop in the nine months ended September, benefiting smaller rivals such as Gulf and Nock. In the nine months ended September, Total saw its share drop to 20.4 per cent from 21.1 per cent while that of Vivo declined to 18.1 per cent from 20 per cent. Kenol’s fell slightly to 13.8 per cent from 13.9 per cent [...]

Tea price continues to fall despite drop in volumes

The price of tea at the Mombasa auction continues to fall even as the volumes offered for sale in last week’s sale declined by 260,000 kilogrammes. The price of tea dropped from Sh289 in the previous sale to Sh285 in last week’s auction, registering a drop in three consecutive weeks [...]

Financial Times honours Co-op Bank for inclusive finance model

Co-operative Bank has won a Financial Times award for financial inclusion. The ‘bank of the year 2015 for financial inclusion in the bankers awards’ recognised Co-op Bank for its use of the co-operative societies model, which it also plans to roll out in Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania. The group has successfully replicated this model in South Sudan where it is already operational under a strategic joint venture with the government [...]

CA seeks to stop telcos’ fibre optic cable race with steep cash penalty

The communications sector regulator has drafted regulations that will guide mobile network operators and telecommunication infrastructure providers on how they will share their networks, failure to which they risk losing 0.2 per cent of their gross revenue. The new rules are contained in the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) Infrastructure Sharing regulations zero draft 2015 and open to public debate [...]

Airtel, Telkom win in 4G frequency spat with Safaricom

Airtel and Telkom’s Kenya Orange are set to be allocated equal share of the preferred 800MHz frequencies for rolling out high speed Internet, a move expected to end claims that the regulator was favouring Safaricom in spectrum allocation. The Communications Authority of Kenya will put a proposal to its board for equal allocation of the 800MHz frequency spectrum to the three mobile operators [...]

Consolidated eyes Sh1.5bn in rights issue

Consolidated Bank has disclosed it is targeting to raise Sh1.5 billion in a rights issue next year to bridge a deficit in statutory capital requirements. The state-owned bank has been planning the funds after holding below statutory capital over the past three years. Its core capital to risk-weighted assets stood at 7.7 per cent against the mandatory 10.5 per cent at the end of September [...]

Rwanda gives Kenya bank subsidiaries a year to boost capital

Rwanda has joined Sudan in requiring Kenyan banks to inject additional billions into the subsidiaries after the regulator National Bank of Rwanda (NBR) issued new minimum capital requirements. The National Bank of Rwanda has given Kenyan bank subsidiaries a year to raise capital buffers by up to 2.5 per cent of their deposits to improve their stability in times of losses and economic stress. Introduction of the capital buffer will push the minimum ratio [...]