Rift Valley Railways seeks Sh1.2 billion fuel levy refund

Rift Valley Railways (RVR) has sued the government for wrongfully charging it the levy that is specific to road users despite its continued operation as a railway-specific company. The firm is seeking a refund of Sh1.3 billion for the Road Maintenance Levy Fund (RMLF) it has been paying in the past four years despite the authority’s knowledge that the rail operator does not use the fuel to run any vehicles on the roads. The firm is seeking exemption from the levy citing similar concessions to power generators who use diesel to power their plants. [...]

NSE investors’ wealth up Sh113bn in six weeks

Investor wealth at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) has grown by Sh113 billion since the beginning of the year as the gradual return of foreign demand in big cap counters drives up valuations. Market capitalization stands at Sh2.413 trillion compared to Sh2.3 trillion at year end, driven mainly by gains in the top three companies namely Safaricom, East Africa Breweries Ltd (EABL) and Equity Bank. The three firms account for nearly 60 per cent (Sh67.1 billion) of the total market rise in capitalization. Net foreign inflows for the first two weeks of February stood at Sh695 million ($7.6 million) [...]

PwC sees explorers sparing Kenya oil sector budget cuts

PwC says exploration cost reduction is inevitable as oil prices hover around the $50-60 per barrel mark, with offshore oil or gas exploration in Congo, Angola, Tanzania and South Africa’s shale prospects likeliest to soak the cutbacks. A new report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Africa states Kenya’s upstream oil sector is likely to be spared the impending cuts in oil sector budgets due to the relatively low cost of onshore exploration. The firm indicates that the best opportunity to invest in upstream oil business is the onshore exploration, where Kenya has scored highly over the past two years with significant discoveries in Turkana County [...]

CBK downplays Moody’s warning on bad loans risk

Central Bank said the mandatory capital buffers, which commercial banks started holding beginning this year, provide lenders with resilience as bad debts rise, days after IMF and Moody’s cautioned of a creeping problem. Njuguna Ndung’u, the Central Bank governor, made the statement after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and rating agency Moody’s issued reports last month raising concerns over the provisioning for bad loans in the country. IMF had noted the ratio of cash set aside to absorb bad loans and the actual defaults in the country, usually referred as the coverage ratio, were declining, indicating provisions were lagging behind bad loans [...]

Urithi Sacco launches Sh1bn housing project

Kiambu-based Urithi Housing Cooperative Society has launched a Sh1 billion project to put up houses in Nakuru, Thika, Juja, and Kitengela. Under “Nyumba Mia” project, Urithi will construct 100 houses as it seeks to boost revenue through residential developments. The units will be three-bedroomed going for Sh2.8 million. The houses are expected to be completed by the end of this year and will stand on a 100 acres bought through member’ contributions [...]

US firm secures Sh183m to train local workforce

CloudFactory, an American outsourcing company, has received a Sh183 million investment to train its Kenyan workforce and expand operations. The outsourcing company got $2 million investment from the Rockefeller Foundation to train workers it needs to expand its video and audio transcription service. The US firm has a Nairobi office that does transcription for ESPN, Deloitte and University of North Carolina and will leverage on the high pool of skilled workers in Kenya who are fluent in English [...]