BY DAVID ONJILI Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, the founding father of the nation went to Jamhuri Park to watch Kenya Play Ghana in an independence celebratory match, thereafter dubbed the Jamhuri Day horror. Documented as his first and last match ever, Kenya trailed by four goals, courtesy of Ghana’s Acheampong, with only 35 minutes played and eventually lost 13 – 2. Agitated, the old man wondered why Kipchoge Keino, Kenya’s 1968 Olympian Gold Medalist and Olympic record holder in 1500m could not be allowed to come and outrun the Ghanian’s with the ball. Ever since, Kenya’s football has seen both better…
Author: Nairobi Business Monthly Reporter
Child marriage will cost African countries tens of billions of dollars in lost earnings and human capital, says a new World Bank report launched ahead of the African Union Commission’s second African Girls Summit on Ending Child Marriage in Ghana last month. According to Educating Girls and Ending Child Marriage: A Priority for Africa report, more than three million (or one third of) girls in Sub-Saharan Africa marry before their 18th birthday each year. Today, the region has the highest prevalence of child marriage in the world. Child brides are much more likely to drop out of school and complete fewer years of education than…
BY CYNTHIA WAIRIMU The appearance of your nails in general is not enough to make a diagnosis. However, there are warning signs to look out for, and right here we will cover a few common ones. In general, healthy nails are smooth and have an even colour. There will be changes due to age, contact with chemicals such as detergent and dyes that can cause irritation, brittle nails, injuries such as knocking your nail on something hard, car doors being the biggest culprits… most of these will simply grow out with the nail. However, there is cause for alarm if…
Anew book by McKinsey confirms that Africa is poised for economic acceleration, akin to the Asian boom. While other geographies are seeing incremental growth, global companies that get in early and join the African champions shaping the right strategies, can sustain double-digit profit growth over the next few decades. In Africa’s Business Revolution: How to Succeed in the World’s Next Big Growth Market (Harvard Business Review Press, November 20, 2018) Acha Leke, Mutsa Chironga, and Georges Desvaux detail the research that McKinsey & Company has done and share insights into Africa’s future growth prospects. The conclusions they draw are distilled from 3,000…
Nairobians rank affordable housing as the most important factor when deciding where to live and work, according to Mercer, a consulting leader in advancing health, wealth and career. This is followed by safety and security, air and water quality, transportation and traffic, and finally life satisfaction. “With this in mind, governments and large businesses have a role to play in making cities more attractive in meeting the top needs of employees,” says Francis Omanyala, associate at Mercer Africa. The study provides critical insight into the motivations of workers against the backdrop of fierce competition for highly skilled talent. It also provides…
BY MATTHEW KIBBY With a boom in hotel construction, major infrastructure projects underway, and good GDP growth in many countries, the construction sector in sub-Saharan Africa offers several bright prospects. A report from GlobalData forecasts that sub-Saharan Africa will have the fastest growing construction industry in the world over the next five years, with a compound annual growth rate of 6.6%. However, construction companies in the region also face numerous challenges – from lukewarm economic growth in South Africa and funding challenges in Nigeria, to skills shortages, rising materials and labour costs, and exchange rate volatility across the region. To…
BY PETER WANYONYI Many arguments have been made– including in this column – about the pros and cons of electric vehicles (EVs) alongside, or as a replacement for, traditional vehicles powered by internal combustion engines (ICEs). These arguments have revolved around the economic and technological case for EVs: The range capability of EVs is a problem, with most unable to provide the sort of range that ICE vehicles enjoy. The most critical issue with EVs, though, is the lack of refill – or rather, recharge – infrastructure.First, the context of the issue. Kenya, like all other African countries, does not…
BY DENS KRUGER The international payments landscape is undergoing significant change. New, disruptive technologies are entering the payments market and putting pressure on traditional banking practices. Regulatory scrutiny, particularly around KYC and AML, and changes in consumer and client behaviours and expectations are also forcing the industry to review traditional banking models. The banking sector is facing these challenges head-on, developing a new and more innovative and dynamic payments landscape. Consumers want their retail experience to be replicated in the banking world; this means instant, frictionless services. At the same time, corporate clients want to reduce payment costs and are…
BY VICTOR ADAR E xpeditions Maasai Safaris Limited, Valentines Cake House and BIZNA Kenya painted a bright picture as far as the digital landscape is concerned at a forum on Digital Trends 2019 that was sponsored by Safaricom Limited. What stood out at the event that was recently held in Nairobi was the fact that techies and corporate organisations are foreseeing fundamental shifts in the digital landscape that will transform consumer behaviour, e-commerce, digital marketing and mobile communication in the near future. Speakers at the forum where top 25 women and top 25 men in digital sphere in 2018 were…
BY ANTONY MUTUNGA It has been about nine years since TeliaSonera Company introduced the fourth generation of the mobile technology (4G) to the world, which offers much greater speeds when compared to the third generation (3G). The 4Gl has also reduced the latency involved. Despite being introduced in the late 2009, it took almost three years for the technology to be launched in Africa with Angola being the first country to launch it in 2012. Since then a majority of the African countries have concentrated on having commercial 4G services. According to GlobalData, one of the largest data and insights…