BY DAVID ONJILI It is self evident that Kenyans are currently going through tough economic times. Job losses, delayed salaries, higher taxes and escalated cost of living are the mare a majority has to put up with. This unprecedented cost of living has not been met by a resultant increase in basic salaries or minimum wages and thus it is time Kenyans really learnt to make do in these harsh times. Frugality must not be confused with being misers or cheap slates. It is time to assess your expenditure budgets with some magnifying glasses. Like any budget, the income and…
Author: Nairobi Business Monthly Reporter
BY DR KELLEN KIAMBATI Today, more than ever before, we live in a world faced with enormous social challenges. Recently, the world marked one of the greatest milestones with seven billion people. Out of this total population, 1.8 billion are youth aged 10 to 24 with 90% of them living in developing countries. Research has shown that this generation is the most interconnected and the challenges they face are ever more daunting. It is important to deal with these challenges so that institutions can address them as they frame the stakes of youth policies and programmes. Political ideologies: Young people…
BY KOSTA KIOLEOGLOU Real estate market and a country’s economy are directly correlated and affect each other. For sustainable real estate growth to be achieved, a strong economic environment with positive economic data is required. Equally, real estate investments and prices are good measures for reflecting economic trends and serve as good predictors of economic growth. To see the future of a real estate market, one should start by looking into the country’s economic data. This helps to understand the potential growth or possible shrinkage of a market. Economic growth leads to an increase in affordability within the lower and…
BY VICTOR ADAR Whether or not ideas that become real businesses are rare to come by, there is a growing need to out think. More and more young entrepreneurs are grabbing the opportunity to get the much needed financing in various ways including participating in contests. With advancements on the way investors look for big ideas to fund, just be the best. Convincing an investor to invest in your business is an assurance that you are on the right path. KCB Lion’s Den, which is a panel of shrewd Kenyan business magnates who have the cash and the know-how of…
BY VICTOR ADAR A mobile technology specialist firm, Myriad Connect, has decried a growing problem of SIM swap fraud warning that the scam is now a global threat as many industry players across Africa continue to battle it. The company says that this fraud has plagued mobile users across Africa for years thanks to a recent survey in Kenya revealing that over 90% of Kenyan banking leaders see it as an issue for their organisations. Worse still, the percentage of people who had been victims of the digital crime stand at over 25, an indication of how bad things are to…
BY ANTONY MUTUNGA Africa is now among the fastest in the world in urbanisation. According to the World Bank, for instance, sub-Saharan Africa experienced an annual urban population growth rate of 4.1% as compared to the global rate of 2% in 2017. Businesses and governments have, consequently, started to recognize the role of technology, integrating it more into the economy with the emergence of different companies into the region such as Uber and Airbnb that rely on technology. The continent has however lagged in these fronts for many years. For example, sub-Saharan Africa is one of the regions whereby a…
BY NIKKI SUMMERS The pace of technology change is accelerating, creating exciting new opportunities for human resources (HR) leaders and departments in East Africa. I recently attended the Talent Agenda Series East Africa Conference in Nairobi, where I moderated a discussion focused on the fourth industrial revolution and how it influences African talent. One of the key insights is that HR is still largely rooted in the third industrial revolution, but now needs to get ready for the fourth industrial revolution. Here are some of the key trends we see unfolding in HR in the era of big data, the Internet of…
BY ANTONY MUTUNGA From 1973 when the first mobile phone was introduced to the world to now, mobile phones have seen a lot of transformation. The first mobile phone to make a call weighed 1.1kg, had 30 minutes talk time and would take up to 10 hours to charge. Over the years however, this has changed. First, they became smaller. Then the time they could take to charge tremendously reduced. Next was the Smartphone. This further improved the software and hardware of mobile phones turning them into mini computers that took only a short time to fully charge. Smartphones have…
SWIFT has launched the gpi Observer Analytics tool, a new resource for gpi banks to gain more comprehensive business insights into their gpi traffic flows. This follows a successful pilot with 17 banks The unique market and competitive analysis that gpi Observer Analytics provides will allow African gpi-member banks to act on reliable and fact-based information to understand the current itinerary and speed of their payment instructions. Larize Nel, Payments Portfolio Manager, ABSA Bank, said: “Complex data made simple! This is such a powerful tool. It provides a simplistic and customized view on data that was previously difficult to access,…
BY RAFAEL MARQUES de MORAIS Just think for a minute. In a two-year span, a father gave his daughter, among several contracts, four that were worth over US $22 billion. The father is then President José Eduardo dos Santos, and the daughter is Isabel, Africa’s richest woman. These were the golden days of the presidential family’s capture of Angola. Period. In the past month, with a stroke of a pen, General João Lourenço has annulled the four egregious contracts. The former “princess” is crying foul, and is threatening to sue the Angolan state however, the state is calling out her…