Business daily apr 2nd 2015

Bitange Ndemo Are we ready for a data revolution?

Digital Business

New seeds-tracking platform renews hope of better profits Page 15

Page 10

Impact of positive thoughts on presentation Page 27

THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2015

NO. 2065

Life

WWW.BDAFRICA.COM KSH60 | TZ SH 1,700 | UGSH2,700 | RFr900

Banks defy CBK, load p≥ofit ma≥gins on the cost of loans Survey finds that all banks are in breach of a deal agreed with the regulator not to include the item

BY GEORGE NGIGI

The Kenya Banks’ Reference Rate (KBRR) Framework

Nearly all of Kenya’s 46 commercial banks are in breach of a deal they struck with the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) requiring them not to include profit margins in the premiums they add to the standard base lending rate, frustrating the regulator’s efforts to bring down the cost of loans.

A new CBK report on the lending market shows that profit margins constitute a fifth of premiums charged on loans, making a mockery of the regula-

Rotich limits size of ca≥s fo≥ gove≥no≥s

tor’s quest to tame rising lending rates using the recently introduced Kenya Banks Reference Rate (KBRR).

“Although the value of the premium ‘K’ above the KBRR should depend on the lender’s perception of customer-specific risk profile, sector-specific risks, speed and cost of collateral perfection at the Lands Registry, and other costs arising from the due diligence processes, the February 2015 Survey shows that banks have included other factors,” says the report based on a recent LOANS, Page 4» CBK survey.

DEFIANT

EACC staff exit amid row with salaries agency The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission continues to register mass exodus of employees amid a raging feud with the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) over compensation terms. In the past year alone, the antigraft agency has lost 20 employees seeking greener pastures , bringing the total of staff who have quit since its inception in 1997 to 200. Page 5»

Equatorial Bank chief out in turnaround strategy The chief executive of Equatorial Commercial Bank (ECB) Sammy Itemere has left the institution, marking the first major change effected by the new majority owner Mwalimu Sacco. Mr Itemere’s employment was severed in February, setting the stage for his replacement with an advert for the position yesterday. Page 7»

Equity’s returns on owners funds may fall Regional lender Equity Bank could be headed for lower returns on shareholder funds as it doubles bad debt provisions and margins on interest income fall, investment bankers at Citibank Global Markets say. As Equity grows its loan book, the analysts say, the return on equity (ROE) - used to measure profitability - will fall from 29.7 per cent achieved in 2014 to 25.8 per cent in 2017.

BY EDWIN MUTAI

Top county government officials are set to lose the luxury of being chauffeured in fuel guzzlers following the publication of new regulations capping the capacity of cars they can buy.

The regulations, which Treasury secretary Henry Rotich tabled in Parliament on Tuesday, limit the capacity of vehicles driven by governors, county executives and county representatives at 3000 cc.

The Public Finance Management (County Government) Regulations 2015 restrict governors to using saloon cars not exceeding 2600 cc and 4X4 utility vehicles of not more than 3000 cc.

The capacity of official vehicles purchased for use by deputy governors, speakers of county assemblies and county executive committee members has been capped at 2400 cc for salon cars and 3000 cc for 4X4 utility vehicles.

“There is need to ensure prudent use of public resources in line with Article 201 of the Constitution by providing ceilings in both the Public Finance Management Act, 2012 and PFM (County) Regulations, 2014 for expenditures of county assemblies,” Mr Rotich says in the explanatory memo- GUZZLERS, Page 4»

BRIEFING

Page 19»

NEWS INDEPTH Nigeria’s new leaders have an opportunity to work towards true democracy Pages 12-13 »

Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) chairperson Mumo Matemu with his deputy, Irene Keino, during a Press briefing at Integrity Centre yesterday. They said that they would not resign and would continue fighting corruption in the country. JEFF ANGOTE

NAIROBI

2

BUSINESS DAILY | Thursday April 2, 2015

TOP NEWS

Kenyan diaspo≥a wants investment te≥≥ain imp≥oved WEALTH President assures of new policy

and strategy that will enable them to invest of the measures taken to encourage diaspora engagement in the country’s Kenyans living in the diaspora have economic growth. Family Bank Group, asked the government to create a more which was one of the key sponsors of conducive investment environment the event, urged the government to put more focus on promoting diaspora to enable them increase their capital remittances than attracting foreign dioutlays back home. rect investments.

During an inaugural diaspora investment conference held yesterday “The current number of Kenyans in Nairobi, the group asked for more living abroad has grown bigger than accurate and transparent data to ensome of our own counties here at home. Remittances from the diaspora able making of informed investment were more than $1.43 bildecisions.

“Government needs to lion in 2014 which transplay the role of creating lates to about 2.4 per cent an enabling investment The main th≥ust of GDP. The 25 per cent of atmosphere for us,” a Kenthis invested exceed what yan diaspora representa- must be to unlock we get from foreign diand maximise the rectly investment and it is tive from Japan said.

The two-day conference hithe≥to untapped time the country chose to themed ‘‘Development and focus on promoting more p≥omise of the diaspora investment,” Innovation: Opportunities diaspo≥a for Diaspora,’’ is expected Family Bank CEO Peter to come up with an invest- PRESIDENT UHURU KENYATTA Munyiri noted. Other key ment framework to be apsponsors are KCB and Coplied in a bid to encourage more Kenoperative Bank. yans to invest home.

There are approximately three million Kenyans in the diaspora with President Uhuru Kenyatta asmajority residing in USA, Canada, the sured Kenyans living abroad that the UK, UAE and African countries. government would commit in policy Although Central Bank of Kenya and strategy to create an enabling and the Kenya National Bureau of environment that will enable them Statistics estimate that diaspora reto invest here. mittances for 2014 were close to $1.5 “In this process of integration, billion, National Treasury secretary the main thrust must be to unlock and maximise the hitherto untapped Henry Rotich said the unreported repromise of the diaspora and use this mittances were also close to $800 milenergy to carry our country to greater lion bringing the total to $2 billion. heights, while at the same time meetForeign Affairs secretary Amina ing the needs and expectations of KenMohamed said her ministry is develyans abroad at every point in time,” Mr oping incentives and tailor-made inKenyatta said. vestment packages to encourage Kenyans abroad to direct their remittances The President cited the launch of the African Institute for Remittances towards productive ventures both at in Nairobi in November last year as one the national and county levels.

BY EDWIN OKOTH

Cou≥t u≥ges change to law on HIV positive mothe≥s Human rights groups have welcomed moves to change a Kenyan law passed to curb the spread of HIV/Aids, which criminalises pregnant women who pass HIV/Aids to their babies, saying it discouraged people from finding out their status.

The 2006 law says that a person who knows they are HIV positive must tell “any sexual contact” of their status in advance and could be jailed for seven years if they “knowingly and recklessly” placed another person at risk of being infected.

The High Court ruled this section of the law unconstitutional on March 18 as “it could be interpreted to apply to women who expose or transmit HIV to a child during pregnancy, delivery or breastfeeding”.

The law was introduced to curb the spread of HIV/Aids in Kenya, which has the fourth largest HIV positive

East Africa www.businessdailyafrica.com

Follow your favourite stories online, plus more on markets, industry, policy and agribusiness FIND US ON FACE BOOK & TWITTER

businessdailyafrica BD_Africa

Tuesday

Nairobi

From left: Industrialisation and Enterprise Development secretary Adan Mohamed, Kenya Institute of Management (KIM) executive director David Muturi and Kiambu deputy governor Gerald Githinji during a business leaders’ forum organised by KIM at Safari Park Hotel in Nairobi yesterday. ANTHONY OMUYA

Index to companies

Wednesday

Thursday

This index of businesses mentioned in today’s issue of the Business Daily is intended to include all significant references to companies.

Friday

Nairobi

Hi: 250C Lo: 140C

Hi: 210C Lo: 130C

Hi: 220C Lo: 140C

Hi: 230C Lo: 130C

Hi: 220C Lo: 130C

Kampala

Hi: 26 C Lo: 150C

Hi: 25 C Lo: 120C

Hi: 25 C Lo: 120C

Hi: 26 C Lo: 140C

Hi: 26 C Lo: 130C

Dar-es-Salaam

Hi: 300C Lo: 190C

Hi: 280C Lo: 220C

Hi: 280C Lo: 220C

Hi: 290C Lo: 220C

Hi: 290C Lo: 230C

Kigali

Hi: 250C Lo: 160C

Hi: 270C Lo: 120C

Hi: 270C Lo: 130C

Hi: 270C Lo: 140C

Hi: 270C Lo: 140C

Bujumbura

Hi: 300C Lo: 170C

Hi: 310C Lo: 150C

Hi: 310C Lo: 140C

Hi: 310C Lo: 140C

Hi: 300C Lo: 150C

0

0

population in the world - 1.7 million people.Rights groups argue that it discriminates against women, who are often the first members of a family to find out their HIV status as they are usually tested while pregnant.

“This law has inflicted fear, shame and punishment on countless Kenyans, especially pregnant women,” Evelyne Opondo, Africa director of the New-York based Center for Re-

Business matte≥s

Weekly Weather Forecast Monday

A mother breast-feeds her baby. A law had stipulated a jail sentence for mothers who infect babies with HIV. FILE

productive Rights (CRR), said in a statement on Monday.

“Now is the time for the Kenya government to immediately amend this legislation and ensure people living with HIV can get the care they need without fear of discrimination or criminalisation.”

CCR submitted an amicus brief in a case brought against the government by the Aids Law Project, a charity providing legal services and counselling to people living with HIV. The charity argued that the law discourages people from finding out their status and could even prevent those with HIV giving first aid or playing sports for fear of being prosecuted.

The law also puts women at risk of violence or rejection by their husbands because it allows doctors to disclose patients’ status to their next of kin, it said. -REUTERS

0

0

0

Oracle ...................................3

NMG ..................................... 6

Coca-Cola ............................ 8

Starbucks .............................3

MultiChoice..........................7

Google ................................16

Gilead ...................................3

StarTimes .............................7

Samsung ....................... 16,17

GE ......................................... 3

ECB....................................... 8

Motorola.............................18

NCPB .................................... 5

CBK....................................... 8

Conan..................................18

Mumias................................ 6

EABL..................................... 8

Equity..................................19

Stan Chart............................ 6

UDV ...................................... 8

World Bank .........................19

Thursday April 2, 2015 | BUSINESS DAILY

3

TOP NEWS RADAR SCREEN

COMPENSATION

REUTERS

Critics say that Federal Reserve Bank policies have helped those who are already wealthy

Top CEOs ≥eaped billions f≥om stock gains C EOs at large US companies collectively realised at least $6 billion more in compensation than initially estimated in annual disclosures in the five years after the financial crisis first hit, according to a Reuters analysis. The reason for the windfall: the soaring value of their stock awards.

About 300 CEOs who served throughout the 2009-2013 period at S&P 500 companies together realised about $22 billion in compensation in the form of pay, bonuses and share and option grants, or an average of $73 million each, figures provided by executive compensation data firm Equilar show.

That compares to about $16 billion initially reported in annual company summary compensation tables, which include estimates for the value of stock grants based on the price of shares at the time of awards.

The comparison does not include pensions and perks such as country club memberships and use of corporate jets for private use. The study also excludes rewards reaped by other top executives, such as chief financial officers and chief operating officers, and compensation for CEOs who did not serve the full five years.

Further gains in share prices in 2014 and so far this year will only have increased the gap between the annual disclosures and the amount actually derived from the awards, with the full picture for last year only becoming clear over the next couple of months.

The S&P 500’s total return, including dividends, was 166 percent from the end of 2008 through Monday of this week, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices.

The impact of the stock market gains on executive pay illustrated in the study will strengthen concerns about how much of an impact the US Federal Reserve’s easy money policies have had on income inequality. Critics say that by raising the value of assets, such as stocks, the Fed’s stimulus has helped those who are already wealthy even as median household income declined 4 percent between 2009-2013.

The bull market also has some investors re-evaluating how they judge compensation plans. In some cases, they say CEOs may be benefiting greatly from a rising tide even when their performance might be weak.

“You’re seeing overpayment, or outsized payments, for what is market performance or mediocre performance,” said Aeisha Mastagni, an

GE Chairman and CEO Jeffrey Immelt.

GETTY IMAGES

investment officer for the $191 billion California State Teachers’ Retirement System, who helps oversee its votes on executive pay proposals at company annual meetings. “Directors can’t ignore the issue of pay inequality or rising executive pay.”

However, more companies are disclosing their realised pay figures and some are eager to defend the supercharged rewards if shareholders have also benefited.

Some of the highest paid executives also often appear in top CEO lists compiled by investors and others because they have run companies so successfully that their share prices have gone through the roof.

An example is John Martin, the CEO of drug maker Gilead Sciences Inc, who has become the best compensated executive of a major US company since the crisis, when factoring in stock and options.

He realised $400.6 million in total compensation from 2009 to 2013, according to the Reuters analysis of the nearly 300 CEOs tracked by Equilar. That is poised to top $600 million by this summer, mostly because of additional exercises of stock options. Their value has surged well beyond the estimates in annual disclosures.

Gilead had estimated Martin’s compensation totalled only $75 million over the five years from 2009 to 2013. But Gilead’s shares have

climbed nearly 300 percent since the end of 2008 while net income almost quadrupled to $12.1 billion in 2014, fuelled by sales of its hepatitis C drug Sovaldi. The company declined to comment for this story.

The second highest-paid CEO over the period was Starbucks Corp’s Howard Schultz who realised $366 million, or more than three times the $97 million reported in summary compensation tables.

That upside is largely the result of the cafe chain’s shares climbing 931 percent since the end of 2008 as earnings surged.

“When the company performs well and the stock price increases, our executives, partners (employees) and shareholders are all rewarded,” a Starbucks spokeswoman said.

The equity-oriented pay structure is good for CEOs of high-growth companies, but also bites those who don’t show big growth.

Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle Corp, realised $282 million during the five-year period analysed by Reuters. That was $100 million below the value reported in Oracle’s summary compensation tables.

The software giant’s total stock return since 2008 has been several percentage points better than the S&P 500 Index, according to FactSet. But off a large base, profit growth has been relatively slow.

Operating income has increased

Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle Corporation. by eight per cent to $14.8 billion over its past three fiscal years. Oracle declined comment. Another CEO who realised less pay than originally estimated was Jeff Immelt of General Electric Co. His $52 million in realised pay was less than the $69.2 million reported in summary compensation tables for 2009-2013.

With a total return of about 96 percent since the end of 2008, GE shares badly lag the S&P 500 index.

GE declined to comment.

Companies began introducing bigger stock and options awards in executive pay packages in the 1990s as a means of reducing tax liability on cash bonuses and as part of a push to encourage CEOs to act in the interests of shareholders.

But with stock markets breaking records, some worry the awards will only underscore the widening gulf between the compensation of top executives and average workers.

“The numbers can be obscene, particularly when you look at the general challenges we face as an economy and society,” said Matthew Benkendorf, a portfolio manager at Vontobel Asset Management, which oversees about $50 billion.

In 2013, CEOs made 331 times the average worker’s income, the largest such gulf in American history and a gap that is set to rise further, according to a study by the AFL-CIO, the largest US federation of un-

AFP

ions. “The executive has received a windfall based on the bull market, which isn’t always attributable to their own performance, and that’s wrong,” said Brandon Rees, deputy director of the AFL-CIO’s Office of Investment, which advises unionsponsored pension plans managing $560 billion.

Big investors can influence the size of company pay plans but have mostly backed management, largely because the value of their shares has also been climbing.

In each year since 2011 when most Russell 3000 companies began holding advisory votes on executive compensation, more than 90 percent of companies have gotten more than 70 percent approval for their executive compensation plans, according to pay consultant firm Semler Brossy.

For example, Michael Cuggino, president and portfolio manager of the $5.3 billion Permanent Portfolio Family of Funds in San Francisco, supported the pay of Gilead CEO Martin.

His funds own Gilead shares and Cuggino said Martin deserves credit for managing the company in a risky industry, where failed drug trials are common and can wreck a company’s share price.

“As long as we’re happy with the company, and it’s making investors money, we don’t begrudge the executives getting their money,” he said.

4

BUSINESS DAILY | Thursday April 2, 2015

TOP NEWS

Banks defy CBK, load p≥ofit ma≥gins on cost of loans »From Page 1

introduced last in an ef- partly blames for the persistence of fort to ward off political pressure that high interest rates. sought to fix lending rates in law.

Currently, loans to small and meThis is the first time that the central dium-sized enterprises are priced at an bank has broken down the elements average 20 per cent, including KBRR that constitute commercial bank rates (8.54 per cent) and a premium of 11.5 as it seeks to enforce transparency in per cent.

The CBK says the removal of the exthe loan pricing market.

Banks attribute 30 per cent of their tra elements such as profit and other premiums to administrative costs, 27.8 unclassified elements would leave the per cent on risk of default and 10 per lending rate at 3.3 percentage points cent to process of registering an asset lower than the current average. as a security to a loan.

The premium on personal loans stands at an Profit margins, now standing at an average of We expect banks average 10 per cent, pushing the total interest rate 21 per cent of the premito va≥y thei≥ ums, constitute the other charged to an average of factors referred to by the lending ≥ates as 18.5 per cent.

The lenders have faultCBK. Non-defined factors close as possible ed the central bank’s posiconstitute nine per cent of to the KBRR tion on premium pricing, the premiums. arguing that they need to Under the new pricing CENTRAL BANK OF KENYA allocate profit margins model interest rates are broken down into two parts which are not included in — the base rate, commonly referred as the base rate calculation. the KBRR, which is set by the CBK, and “This is still under discussion. The the premium, referred to as K, which is discussion is that K (the premium) left at the discretion of each bank. should include the profit element be“We expect banks to vary their cause there is nowhere else to put it lending rates as close as possible to — KBRR can’t accommodate the profit the KBRR,” the central bank has em- element,” said Habil Olaka, the chief phasised in each of its monetary policy executive of Kenya Bankers Associacommittee meeting briefs. The KBRR tion (KBA).

The KBRR is calculated as an averis currently set at 8.54 per cent.

The CBK survey, however, found age of the government borrowing rate that banks are loading premiums as expressed in the 91-day Treasury bill larger than KBRR, a practice that it and the Central Bank Rate – which is

Former Central Bank of Kenya Governor Njuguna Ndung’u (left) with Prof Terry Ryan, a member of the Monetary Policy Committee, at a past media briefing. FILE the policy rate.

It includes the cost of deposits because large depositors usually challenge banks to match the government rate to attract their funds.

Banks pay less than two per cent interest on retail customer deposits while current accounts operated by businesses do not attract any interest.

Last year, banks paid Sh90 billion for their customers’ Sh2.3 trillion deposits, fixing the cost of funds at an estimated four per cent against the then KBRR of 9.1 per cent.

Mr Olaka, however, maintained that the cost of funds was different for each bank and was mostly determined by the sources of deposits. Those who relied on wholesale depositors, however, incurred higher costs, he said.

The survey found that foreign banks have a higher weighting of profits at 22.5 per cent compared to their local counterparts who had an average weighting of 21.3 per cent.

Kenyan banks have been accused

of overpricing loans to rake in profits without regard to the negative impact the high cost of financing exerts on the rest of the economy.

Large interest spreads have been identified as the main cause of the high cost of loans forcing the government, which is against regulation of interest rates by law, to constitute a committee of experts to tackle the issue.

The committee, which consists of two former chief executives of banks, who are currently serving as Cabinet secretaries, KBA representatives and the CBK, recommended introduction of KBRR. Interest rates have dropped marginally since the introduction of the standardised pricing strategy and were priced at 15.1 per cent in January from 15.7 per cent during a similar month last year.

The new rules require banks to migrate all loans to the KBRR pricing mechanism by end of June this year. Some Sh719.8 billion of existing loans had been converted to the KBRR

framework by end of January.

Last year, banks reported a total profit of Sh140.9 billion up from Sh124.3 billion in 2013 or a 26.6 per cent return on shareholders’ investment.

That outcome left the lenders with the highest returns globally despite the drop from the previous year’s 28.8 per cent.

A stress test on 31 banks in the United States found they had an average return on equity of eight per cent while in Europe banks returned 4.6 per cent to equity, according to data from the European Central Bank.

A 2012 World Bank research showed that 48 per cent of the interest spread — the difference between the rate paid by a bank for deposits and what it charges those who borrow the savings — was attributable to profits with operating expenses taking 40 per cent. gngigi@ke.nationmedia.com

T≥easu≥y c≥acks down on use of fuel guzzle≥s by county chiefs randum accompanying the regulations. The rules, published in a special gazette notice number 33 dated March 20, 2015, are aimed at curbing wasteful expenditure in the 47 county governments.

They will come into effect after 15 days of submission to Parliament whether or not the committee has considered them, raising the question as to what the county governments that already own the fuel guzzlers will do with them.

The new rules also bar Members of County Assemblies (MCAs) from fundamentally altering annual budgets submitted by county executives.

The MCAs, who have been holding governors to ransom on budgets, will only be allowed to vary a budget or any vote in the budget by an amount not exceeding one per cent of the budget or the vote amount. »From Page 1

Mr Rotich is also asking for Parliament’s approval to cap the compensation of national and county government employees at 35 per cent of the equitable revenue shared at both levels.

The Treasury is specifically targeting the profligacy of county assemblies with a new rule that caps their spending at seven per cent of total county revenues.

“The approved expenditures of a county assembly shall not exceed seven per cent of the total revenues of the county government or twice the personnel emoluments of that county assembly, whichever is lower,” the new rule states.

The rule is expected to hit the MCAs hard by limiting the types and amounts they can receive in allowances and could bring to an end the wastage that has characterised their spending since the county governments were es-

tablished two years ago.

The subsidiary legislation also stipulates that the national public debt shall not exceed 50 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in terms of net present value.

Kenya’s public debt, though still below the target, has rapidly risen in the past couple of years and has only benefited from the fresh computation of economic data or rebasing that increased the GDP by 25 per cent.

Public debt is currently estimated to stand at 46 per cent of GDP. The new rules also seek to empower the Treasury secretary to provide further guidelines for loans and advances, including benefits and allowances for public officers and county executive committee members for finance who may provide further guidelines for their respective counties in line with the Treasury’s.

Chief officers, clerks of county assemblies and other officers in job group R and chief executives of county corporations will not be allowed to use vehicles that exceed 2000cc for saloon cars and 2900cc for 4X4s.

The regulations empower a county committee member to give a gazette notice of specific category of officers and vehicles to be used by those public officers.

The rules limit the amount of money that a county can borrow within and outside Kenya to not more than 20 per cent of the county government’s most recent audited revenues as approved by the county assembly.

In addition, the annual debt service cost of a county government is limited to not more than 15 per cent of the most recent audited revenue as approved by the county assembly.

“Parliament may review the limit

under this paragraph of this regulation five years after its commencement,” Mr Rotich says.

The coming into force of the rules will also require county governments to hold bank accounts at the Central Bank of Kenya except where the Cabinet secretary has expressly granted exemption.

Counties will be allowed to draw 50 per cent of their budget estimates before approval by assemblies under extreme circumstances.

The regulations also provide for the establishment of a Sinking Fund for county government debt redemption and sets criteria for establishment of public funds, management and winding up of a county public fund.

The criteria for establishment and dissolution of a county corporation as well as evaluation of performance are also set out in the new law.

Thursday April 2, 2015 | BUSINESS DAILY

5

ECONOMY & POLITICS NEWS I REVIEWS I ANALYSIS

EACC staff exit as ≥ow with sala≥ies agency ≥ages SITUATION Anti-graft agency writes report to

President Kenyatta expressing its frustration

BY ALLAN ODHIAMBO

The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) continues to register mass exodus of employees amid a raging feud with the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) over compensation terms.

In the past year alone, the anti-graft agency has lost 20 employees seeking greener pastures , bringing the total of staff who have quit since its inception in 1997 to 200.

“Since inception over 200 members of staff have left the commission citing lack of career progression and static remuneration among other reasons,” EACC said in a status report to President Uhuru Kenyatta.

To address the situation, the agency recently undertook a job evaluation through the Devolution and Planning ministry and the directorate of Public Service Management. The report that

was later adopted by the Commission proposed a new salary structure which was forwarded to SRC for approval.

“The proposed salary scale allowed for broader bands for growth within the scale. However, SRC declined to approve the proposed structure and asked the Commission to stick to the prevailing salary structure,” EACC said.

The anti-graft agency’s present remuneration package was issued in 2005 and provides for only three points of growth within the job grades.

“This has led to staff stagnating in the same pay point for 10 years and has contributed to a great extent the high staff turnover,” the agency said.

As at February 27, EACC had 385 staff against an approved level of 2,246 employees, the anti-graft agency said.

“It is our considered view that if the proposed salary structure is adopted as envisaged under the job evaluation ex-

The EACC’s head office in Nairobi. Out of 2,246 approved staff limit, it only has 385 workers. FILE ercise, salary stagnation and high staff turnover will be addressed to a great degree and staff will be motivated to deliver to the Commission’s mandate,” it further said.

The concerns by EACC came in the wake of ongoing investigations on high profile public officials. The commission said it was targeting to trace and re-

State launches Sh2.2 billion st≥ategic food ≥ese≥ve fund A Sh2.2 billion trust fund targeted at building strategic reserves to help stabilise food supply and prices in the country has been set up. Treasury secretary Henry Rotich said the Strategic Food Reserve Trust Fund will be tasked with procuring and storing adequate stocks of food for sale across the country.

“The object and purpose for which the fund is established is to provide a strategic food reserve in physical stock and cash equivalent and specifically the fund shall stabilise the food supply and prices in the country, arrange for procurement, storage and sale of food commodities, maintain adequate strategic food reserves in physical stock or cash equivalent at any one given time and mobilise resources to support strategic food reserve related activities,” Mr Rotich said.

Currently, the country relies on a strategic food reserve managed by the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) which only stocks maize used for relief emergency supplies. The food reserve system run by NCPB has, however, proved unreliable over the years partly due to lack

Planning

Trust fund will procure and store adequate food stocks for sale around the country of funds and poor planning by its managers. Cartels have often taken advantage of the present poorly structured strategic national food reserve to manipulate commodity prices.

Mr Rotich said the new Strategic Food Reserve Trust Fund will run by an oversight board comprising a chairperson appointed by the President and Principal Secretaries drawn from the ministries of Agriculture, Interior and Coordination of national government and Devolution.

The board will also have four other members competitively appointed by the Finance minister of which two shall be nominated by registered nongovernmental organisations involved in food

security in the country while the other duo shall be persons qualified and competent in the field of finance, accounting, and management or marketing.

Members of the oversight board, including the chairperson, shall hold office for a term of three years, but shall be eligible for re-appointment for a further one term of three years.

In a bid to ensure transparency, the administrator of the Fund will be required to open and operate a bank account at the Central Bank of Kenya or a bank to be approved by the National Treasury, into which all monies raised under Fund shall be paid.

The fund administrator will also be required to prepare and submit reports to the AuditorGeneral and the Treasury every year. “The fund administrator shall prepare a quarterly report on the receipts into and issues out of the Fund and submit it to the Cabinet Secretary for gazettement by the 21st of every fourth month,” Mr Rotich further said.

— ALLAN ODHIAMBO

cover corruptly acquired assets valued at over Sh50 billion and keep track of the expanded national budget at about Sh1.7 trillion, both at the county and national level.

The government is currently grappling with huge expenditure requirements with both the Treasury and the SRC remaining adamantly against the

upward review of salaries and allowances of civil servants and public officers. The SRC is reviewing perks in the public sector to ensure that people handling the same jobs get equal allowance across the board in an attempt to trim the swelling wage bill.

Currently, the wage bill stands at Sh568 billion ($6.24 billion), consuming over 52 per cent of the country’s domestic revenue, which is already too high for a low middle-income economy, analysts said. Unlike Kenya, in some developed and emerging economies, the public wage bill consumes only five per cent of total revenues.

It is projected that the compensation for public servants will jump by an extra Sh19.7 billion in the next financial year before taking into account the demands for higher pay by teachers and other civil servants. State think-tank Kenya Institute of Public Policy Research and Analysis (Kippra) says allowances have made the government the preferred employer and called for a radical review. aodhiambo@ke.nationmedia.com

6

BUSINESS DAILY | Thursday April 2, 2015

ECONOMY & POLITICS

Kamani b≥othe≥s lose bid to get back seized passpo≥ts

Kenya mulls tax incentives to boost ICT investment

TRIAL Director of Public Prosecutions

impounded identification, travel documents travel during the Easter festivities”, but he declined.

Businessman Deepak Mr Ndwiga directed their lawyer, Paul NyamoKamani and his brother Rashmi Kamani, who are di, to make a formal apfacing trial over the Anplication and allow Mr The c≥iminal glo Leasing scandal, have Tobiko to respond. p≥oceedings a≥e lost a bid to get back their The application an abuse of powe≥ passports. should be listed and The Director of Pubheard at “the court’s and an attempt to lic Prosecutions Keriako c≥iminalise the civil convenience”, the magTobiko impounded the istrate said. cont≥acts identification and travel The Kamanis are SUSPECTS documents to prevent among eight suspects, including former governthem from leaving the ment officials, charged country. over the high-profile corOn Wednesday, they ruption case linked to international pleaded with anti-corruption court fraud companies. magistrate Peter Ndwiga to release The other accused are Mr Chamanthe passports to facilitate “overseas

BY VINCENT AGOYA

From left: Mr Chamanlal Kamani, Mr Deepak Kamani and Mr Rashmi Kamani at the mention of an Anglo Leasing-related case at the Milimani Law Courts in Nairobi last month. FILE

lal Viraj Kamani, former Finance Minister Chris Obure, former permanent secretary Dave Mwangi and Sammy Kyungu, former head of debt management at the Treasury Others are David Onyonka, former accounting officer Samuel Bundotich and former Postmaster-General Francis Chahonyo. The eight have challenged their prosecution, claiming that the case involved civil contractual agreements “that in some instances were partly performed by both parties to the contract”.

The criminal proceedings are an abuse of power and an attempt to criminalise the civil contracts, they

claim. Former Finance Minister David Mwiraria, who is the first accused in the case, is said to be in hospital and will appear in court when he recovers.

The prosecution will be relying on the help of Interpol to trace and arrest a Mr Brian Mills, who is also to be charged over the scandal.

In the petition challenging their prosecution, the Kamanis have maintained that “the case is not meant to attain a conviction or punish criminal conduct, the purpose being purely collateral, and the aim, to give the state breathing space in the political arena.”

Lawye≥ Ojienda fights EACC o≥de≥ to p≥obe bank account

BY BRIAN WASUNA

Lawyer Tom Ojienda wants the High Court to stop the anti-graft watchdog from investigating his Standard Charted Bank account over alleged collusion with Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero to defraud Mumias Sugar Company of Sh300 million.

The senior counsel yesterday filed a suit seeking to quash a warrant allowing Ethics and Anti-Corruption

Commission (EACC) officers to investigate his account held at the bank’s Nakuru branch, arguing that it was obtained irregularly from the Kibera Law Courts.

The EACC has revealed that it is investigating Mr Kidero for allegedly paying Prof Ojienda Sh300 million from Mumias accounts for services not rendered. Prof Ojienda has dismissed the allegations, noting that

Kide≥o sues KPMG ove≥ Mumias dossie≥

BY BRIAN WASUNA

Nairobi governor Evans Kidero has sued international auditor KPMG for defamation. Dr Kidero seeks to clear his name over graft allegations made against him in the firm’s draft forensic report on Mumias Sugar Company accounts.

He has faulted the audit firm for presenting the report to Parliament, as he holds it is an unconcluded document that was intended for Mumias Sugar’s exclusive use. The document, he holds, contains untrue and defamatory statements about him.

The suit comes just weeks after the Nairobi governor filed another suit against the Nation Media Group

and Standard Group seeking damages for alleged defamation for publishing stories about him derived from the document. “KPMG asserts that the draft report was not a public document but an internal one prepared for the exclusive use of Mumias Sugar Company but proceeded to forward to Parliament an unconcluded draft report which it was yet to verify, as if the report were a public document,” Dr Kidero says.

KPMG prepared the report on demand from Mumias Sugar, which is seeking to bring to book the individuals responsible for its sharp decline from one of the country’s top profit makers to a near total collapse in just three years. The document implicates

nobody has complained to EACC of any such payment. “The petitioner seeks an order to quash warrants of investigation given to the EACC officers on March 18 in Kibera Law Courts and an order to stop the EACC and its officers from further investigating statements, cheques, money transfers or any other information in respect of the said account,” Prof Ojienda said.

He said the EACC officers, Michael

Governor’s suit Dr Kidero seeks to clear his name of graft allegations made against him in the firm’s draft forensic report on Mumias Sugar accounts.

He says the document contains untrue and defamatory statements. the Nairobi governor in the irregular award of tenders worth millions of shillings. Dr Kidero now says that he was absolved of the allegations made

by KPMG in a full audit of the struggling sugar miller under his tenure as CEO between 2002 and 2013 done by Deloitte and Touche.

“KPMG withheld it from the public in its draft report that the allegations they were purporting to raise concerned issues that were already audited by Deloitte and Touche, whose opinion KPMG never sought in compiling the so-called forensic audit report,” the Nairobi governor added.

Kasilon and Eustace Waweru, obtained the warrant irregularly as he was not asked to appear before the Kibera court to take part in the determination of the request. The senior counsel now wants Director of Public Prosecutions Keriako Tobiko to order investigations into Mr Kasilon and Mr Waweru for perjury, claiming the officers lied to the Kibera court to convince the magistrate to issue the warrant.

Kenya may offer tax incentives to firms in the information communication technology (ICT) sector to encourage investment and boost its contribution to economic growth, the minister for information said.

Fred Matiangi said his ministry had put forward a proposal to the finance ministry on measures to boost growth in the sector. He said the measures include investment in additional infrastructure to increase Internet access and lower services costs.

“The question we need to answer is, how do we speed up growth in this sector?,” Dr Matiangi told Reuters on the sidelines of an ICT conference in the coastal resort of Diani.

“We need to offer Internet access (even) to the trader in the village,” he said on Tuesday, adding that roaming charges between several east African countries have been lowered to boost trade.

Internet usage in east Africa’s biggest economy stood at 26.1 million of the population last December, regulator Communications Authority of Kenya said, or roughly 64 people per 100.

The government is laying 1,600 kilometres of fiber-optic cable nationwide in the financial year ending in June. It will add another 1,000 kilometres next financial year, Dr Matiangi said.

He said the government aimed to fund 50 innovators in the ICT sector every year to turn their ideas into start-ups, as it seeks to turn the country into an ICT hub modeled on Silicon Valley. -REUTERS

Mu≥ang’a gove≥no≥ a≥≥ested

BY BD REPORTER

Officers from the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) yesterday arrested Murang’a Governor Mwangi wa Iria.

Mr wa Iria, who was driven in a Land Rover from Murang’a to EACC headquarters in Nairobi , said he was arrested in relation to a case he had before vying in the 2013 General Election.

His arrest had nothing to do with the ongoing purge on corruption targeting State officers in which 12 governors have been mentioned.

Mr wa Iria, who was accompanied by his lawyer John Ng’ang’a, briefly talked to journalists on arrival at the EACC offices and dismissed his arrest.

“Wameniweka kwa Land Rover ili dunia yote ione.” he said in Kiswahili.

(They have kept me in a Land Rover for

the whole world to see), clarifying that his arrest had nothing to do with the EACC “list of shame”.

His lawyer said he was being questioned over alleged false statements he made to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission when seeking to be cleared for the poll.

Mr wa Iria was not among the 13 governors asked to “step aside” by President Uhuru Kenyatta following their inclusion in the EACC list. Those named include Governors Isaac Ruto (Bomet), Evans Kidero (Nairobi), Ali Joho (Mombasa), Peter Munya (Meru), Alfred Mutua (Machakos), Nadhif Jama (Garissa) and Godana Doyo (Isiolo).

Sources indicated the governor was being questioned over a Sh400,000 cheque he allegedly issued for payment of supply of animal feed and which is said to have bounced. But Mr Wa Iria claims he had settled the matter.

Thursday April 2, 2015 | BUSINESS DAILY

7

CORPORATE NEWS NEWS I REVIEWS I ANALYSIS

HF cont≥acts global consultant in d≥ive to ≥efo≥m business

KAM gets new boss as Maina ≥eti≥es

BY EVELYN SITUMA

RESTRUCTURING McKinsey will, among others,

help set up a stand-alone banking subsidiary

BY MUGAMBI MUTEGI

Mortgage lender Housing Finance (HF) has hired global consultancy firm McKinsey & Company to help restructure its business, including the formation of a stand-alone banking subsidiary.

McKinsey has in the past few years won major consultancy work for local banks including KCB and Co-operative Bank, advising them on business reorganisation and operational efficiencies. Its assignment at the two institutions led to retrenchment of scores of employees in what was attributed to

redundancy of roles. Banks are striving to hold down their cost-to-income ratios in a competitive market where institutions are raising new capital to boost lending capacity.

“We have taken the decision to appoint McKinsey & Company to be our consultancy partner for the next several months,” HF’s chief executive Frank Ireri told staff in a communication seen by the Business Daily.

It was not immediately clear whether HF would also trim its workforce after hiring the consultancy firm.

The company has however signalled its intention to hire more workers,

Mr Frank Ireri, the Housing Finance chief executive officer. FILE having introduced a “large number of new staff” at a company meeting last Friday.

HF has identified eight corporate actions that it wants the consultancy firm to advice on, all of them geared towards growing the company and improving its efficiency.

New banking entity The firm is in the middle of creating a non-operating holding company which will own all subsidiaries including Housing Finance Company, a new banking entity being created. Unlike a bank, a non-operating holding com-

MultiChoice plans annual ≥ise in subsc≥iption fees ove≥ costs

BY WAINAINA WAMBU

MultiChoice Africa, the owner of pay- TV brand DStv, has warned its subscribers of annual fee increments in what it blames on higher operating costs.

This means that DStv subscribers should expect their bills to rise steadily going forward, inflating their overall entertainment budgets.

The price alert comes after the company implemented higher fees for its various bouquets starting this month.

“Unfortunately, it is necessary to implement a price increase on an annual basis due to rising costs to the business,” the company said in a statement.

The announcement by DStv, which has the biggest market share in Kenya, comes at a time when the pay TV market has attracted new players including StarTimes which are luring customers with lower-priced bouquets. DStv’s new fees will see customers pay between Sh930 and Sh8,200 per month depending on the number of

Increase DStv subscribers should expect their bills to rise steadily going forward, inflating their overall entertainment budgets. channels and premium content in their bouquets. This represents a price increase of between Sh50 and Sh800.

Those subscribing to the Premium bouquet will now pay Sh8,200 while those on Compact Plus will pay Sh5,500.

The Personal Video Recorder (PVR) access fee has also increased to Sh1,020 a month, up from the previous Sh880.

MultiChoice attributes the rise in the fees on several cost items including satellite, content and devaluation of currencies against the dollar. The company buys most of its content

based on the dollar and charges subscribers in local monies, exposing it to currency risks.

“In determining a price increase, MultiChoice takes into account many factors including the impact on the subscriber, current inflation and efficiencies effected within the company that may offset the necessity for a price increase,” the firm said in a statement.

MultiChoice added that it also needs to set rates which allow it to maintain reliable and high quality content while also earning a return on capital.

The digital migration wave has attracted new entrants in the pay- TV market, signalling increased competition for established firms like MultiChoice and Wananchi Group which runs the Zuku brand.

Standard Group, for instance, has announced plans to enter the pay TV business through partnerships.

StarTimes is seeking to grow its market share by offering packages at lower prices including one dubbed Nyota which costs Sh150 per month.

pany can own more than a quarter of an institution. HF has four subsidiaries namely Kenya Building Society, Housing Finance Insurance Agency, First Permanent Limited and the Housing Finance Foundation. The new structure will eliminate restrictions that HF has faced in terms of funding and ownership of other units such as Kenya Building Society.

HF recently raised Sh3.5 billion from a rights issue. The cash is expected to strengthen its subsidiaries including KBS which is undertaking several property projects. pmutegi@ke.nationmedia.com

The Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) has appointed a new chief executive to take over from Ms Betty Maina who retires in June.

Mrs Phyllis Wakiaga who served for two years at KAM as the head of Policy Research and Advocacy will start her term on July 1. Ms Maina has served as the CEO of KAM for the last 11 years.

Pradeep Paunrana, the KAM chairman said they had seen it fit not to extend Ms Maina’s term.

“Betty has served the organisation well and the industry will continue to benefit from her wealth of knowledge as she continues to work with the organisation in a consultancy capacity,” Mr Paunrana said.

“Mrs Wakiaga will be the CEO designate of the organisation with effect from April 1 and will take over as the CEO from July 1,” he said.

This is to clarify that the notices appearing in the daily newspapers on 27th March, 2015 were issued by Manji Foods Industries Limited, the manufacturers and principal suppliers of the biscuit-Multibix. We apologize for any inconvenience caused by the said notices. For clarity purposes the notice is reissued as follows; THIS is to NOTIFY all the Members of the public that by a Settlement between Weetabix Limited and Manji Food Industries Limited it has been AGREED that after the 30th May 2015 any person found stocking, selling and/or otherwise offering for sale, or in any way merchandizing or promoting the biscuit product called MULTIBIX and/or any product with the packaging named MULTIBIX and/ or any biscuit product with the name and/or packaging having the suffix BIX (here referred to as the offending product or packaging) manufactured by Manji Food Industries Limited shall be liable for Contempt of Court in Nairobi HCCC No 53 of 2013, Weetabix Limited vs. Manji Food Industries Limited.

THE Public is also NOTIFIED after the 30th May 2015, Weetabix Limited or its authorized agents shall be at liberty to seize, confiscate and destroy all the offending packaging and/or products above-mentioned and any person found in possession of the offending products and/or packaging shall indemnify Manji Food Industries Limited for the Costs of the enforcement in addition to the Court Sanction stated herein above; Weetabix Limited shall not be liable to any person found in possession of the offending products and/or packaging after the 30th May 2015.

FOR avoidance of ambiguity, it is notified that Trade Mark Number 6339 (WEETABIX) and Trade Mark 66703 (BIX) in the name of Weetabix Limited confer upon Weetabix limited or its Agents and/or Licensees the exclusive right to use the suffix BIX on biscuits and breakfast cereals in Kenya.

In case of any questions or clarification on the above please call 0720 297 126.

SIGNED, MANJI FOOD INDUSTRIES LIMITED

8

BUSINESS DAILY | Thursday April 2, 2015

CORPORATE NEWS

Equato≥ial Bank chief out as Mwalimu Sacco seeks tu≥na≥ound

BY VICTOR JUMA

The chief executive of Equatorial Commercial Bank (ECB) Sammy Itemere has left the institution, marking the first major change effected by the new majority owner Mwalimu Sacco.

Mr Itemere’s employment was severed in February, setting the stage for his replacement with an advert for the position yesterday.

He had held the post since May 2013 when he was hired by businessman Naushad Merali from Imperial Bank where he was the head of retail and SME banking.

Mr Merali, however, recently sold a 51 per cent stake to the teachers’ Sacco

in a move that has led to the exit of Mr Itemere.

“ECB is currently looking to fill the position of managing director to provide executive leadership and direction to the organisation, guiding it to be the leading retail and SME bank in Kenya,” reads part of the advert by Deloitte which is recruiting on behalf of the lender.

Besides hiring the CEO, Mwalimu is expected to appoint other directors to the board of ECB to reflect its controlling stake.

The Sacco bought the stake for Sh1 billion and has moved to raise its equity to 75 per cent by investing an additional Sh1.5 billion in the business

Sammy Itemere, outgoing CEO will be replaced by a new manager. SALATON NJUA and to acquire extra shares from Mr Merali.

Mwalimu is the first Sacco to buy a commercial bank, setting a precedent for other Saccos that have been toy-

ing with the idea of converting into banks. The purchase had almost come a cropper after Co-operative Alliance of Kenya (CAK) voiced its opposition to the deal, arguing that the Sacco management had ignored concerns raised by consultants Ernst & Young in their due diligence report and had not sought members’ approval to conduct the transaction.

Mwalimu is the largest Sacco in the country with a membership of 60,961 and savings of Sh18.3 billion. It intends to sell 40 per cent of Mwalimu National Holdings, the vehicle used to invest in ECB, to members.

ECB reported losses in 2009, 2010 and 2012 which was attributed to

EABL exits glass bottles business, eyes billions f≥om subsidia≥y sale ALCOHOL MARKET

Brewer to transfer shares in Central Glass Industries to S.African company Consol Glass

BY MUGAMBI MUTEGI

East African Breweries Limited (EABL) is set to earn billions of shillings from the sale of its longstanding glass business to a South African company, in a transaction which analysts say is meant to help reduce the brewer’s debts.

The brewer said it will transfer all its shares in Central Glass Industries—its 28-year-old subsidiary from which it sources beer and spirits bottles— to JohannesburgEABL Group managing director Charles Ireland . FILE based Consol Glass. the leading glass packaging manuThe loan, on which the brewer Analysts say the move could be said it pays an interest of over 12 facturer in Southern Africa. aimed at reducing an expensive per cent, could have seen it make The company has four factories outstanding loan of over $200 million (Sh18.4 billion) that the brewer in South Africa and recently bought the decision to sell it off. received from its parent company “The most plausible explanation a stake in a Nigerian glass manufacfor the sale is that EABL turer, Glassforce.

Diageo in 2011.

EABL said the deal, whose value looked at its assets and “After a thorough has not been made public, could be determined which ones strategic review, we complete in the next two months have made the decision Afte≥ a tho≥ough they could sell to improve to exit the glass business st≥ategic ≥eview, their debt position,” Eric subject to regulatory and sharein order to focus on our Musau, an analyst with holder approval. we have made Standard Investment Consol has been supplying glass core business and unthe decision to Bank (SIB) told the Busi- to EABL spirits subsidiary United lock additional value ness Daily.

Distillers Vintners (UDV) for sevfor our shareholders,” exit the glass “The proceeds of this eral years. said Charles Ireland, business... sale will most likely go to“This transaction is a win-win the EABL managing CHARLES IRELAND, EABL wards reducing the debt for all parties including employdirector.

EABL took the Diageo from Diageo,” he said. ees who will all be absorbed under MANAGING DIRECTOR loan to buy back a 20 per Consol Glass is a prithe current terms and conditions cent stake in Kenya Breweries Limvately-owned company (its major of employment”, Consol’s chief exited which it had earlier sold to its shareholder is an equity investment ecutive officer Mike Arnold said in fund called Brait) and is currently partner-turned-rival SABMiller. a statement.

Consol’s entry into Kenya will expose them to new customers including Pepsi and Coca-Cola — CGI’s present clientele— and new ones like Keroche Breweries which this week scaled up its output capacity 10 times.

EABL said that despite the buyout, CGI will remain its “primary” source of beer and spirits bottles.

The brewer in October shut down CGI for three months for refurbishment in an exercise that cost it approximately Sh1.3 billion.

“The refurbishment programme has been on course longer and is not related to the divestiture announcement,” said Mr Ireland, adding that they will not be divesting from other subsidiaries in the near future. pmutegi@ke.nationmedia.com

strained capital position given that Mr Merali – the majority shareholder – was not allowed to inject additional funds by the CBK. The regulator barred additional investment by Mr Merali in the bank because his ownership was already higher than the maximum allowed to an individual.

Mr Merali is said to have owned 85 per cent of the lender against a legal limit of 25 per cent.

A commission set up to investigate the controversial deal gave a nod to the transaction and turned the tables on the complainant, the CAK, by calling for a competitive recruitment of its chief executive.

CA gets State suppo≥t in powe≥s quest

BY OKUTTAH MARK

Airtel’s bid to have Safaricom declared dominant got a boost after ICT secretary Fred Matiang’i declared support for the industry regulator’s move to obtain new legal powers to investigate abuse in the telecommunications sector.

The proposed set of 11 regulations meant to come into force by mid-June include a Fair Competition and Equality of Treatment clause that empowers the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) to automatically declare any telecommunication firm with a market share of more than 50 per cent as dominant.

Dr Matiangi defended CA against accusations that it is targeting market leaders in the industry with the proposed regulation, saying they are aimed at ensuring that the providers in the market offer quality services to consumers.

Safaricom, which controls majority share in all market segments including voice (75.6 per cent), SMS (93 per cent), mobile data (70 per cent) and mobile money (66.7 per cent), insists that it is not abusing its market dominance.

“We have heard some operators complain that the new regulations that the CA is coming up with are aimed at punishing them. That is not true. We as a government cannot dictate to the regulator how to handle its matters. However, we support and will respect the regulator’s decision and we have asked them to be objective, fair and firm,” Dr Matiang’i said on Monday during the East Africa Connected Summit in Mombasa.

The Competition Authority of Kenya, the body in charge of all competition matters in all sectors in the country, however recently said there is no evidence that Safaricom is abusing its dominance.

Thursday April 2, 2015 | BUSINESS DAILY

9

IDEAS & DEBATE OPINIONS I REVIEWS I ANALYSIS

ECONOMY Kenyans are shining in IT and they can put the same efforts to boost food production

Let’s get se≥ious about ag≥icultu≥e like Is≥aelis did

receiving an identical amount. And with no water anywhere else there’s no incentive for insects or weeds to flourish. Mr Grinblat listed the three, soon four, possible sources of water: piped from the Sea of Galilee 300 kilometres to the north, which until 20 years ago was the only option; desaliBY MIKE ELDON nated water from the Mediterranean, 100 kilometres away; in a year from he other day, dotted around now, through recycled water from the army camp being constructed 15 kilomy mixed salad, I enjoyed metres away; or from the brackish salty both the sight and the taste of those small sweet cherry tomatoes, and water 900 metres below them. All but I was reminded of seeing them grow at the last alternative cost lots of money a research farm in Israel’s Negev desert to supply, but it was far from obvious during my visit there early this year. that the local water would allow the Driving south along the perfectly plants to grow. smooth road through the Negev, the That’s what much of the research has been all about, and the good news landscape indeed became distinctly is that, alternating with some sweet desert-like, with signs warning us to water (all computer-controlled) tomabeware of camels crossing the road. toes and melons largely fed on brackish At the research centre we first water are actually sweeter. Mr Grinblat watched a film about the activities enthusiastically explained how they there. We saw the farmers and their use bees to pollinate families in action, how the plants; how they they had left everything behind to risk it hang the stems from Come on, Kenyan all in this arid area, and above to take up less unive≥sities, how, supported by exland and allow the emulate the folk pert mentors, they had crops to be more acf≥om Galilee cessible; and how struggled to learn the they experiment with tricks of the trade and different shapes and to harvest their first colours, and for the cherry tomatoes. cherry tomatoes, difNew varieties of ferent arrangements cherry tomatoes were on the stems. developed in Israel 40 years ago, where the cel‘‘Here we can play, ebrated drip irrigation system was also as we don’t grow to sell and survive,’’ dreamed up, and next we were taken by he said. our guide, Gadi Grinblat, to see a plasFor their mission is to improve the tic-covered field of the tiny tomatoes. livelihoods of farmers in Israel and Mr Grinblat was a great story-teller, elsewhere, by offering the results of explaining how over the last 20 years their learning to others. the researchers there have been seekMr Grinblat then took us to see ing ways of continuously improving the grapes on the vine, tickled into growcrop and how it is cultivated. ing out of season through increasing Whether it is tomatoes (8,000 the temperature 10 degrees by placing a plastic cover over them in wintonnes a year come from this area), ter, thereby enabling two harvesting or grapes for wine (150,000 bottles a year are filled in the Negev), or peppers seasons a year. or cucumbers or olives or cotton, the He showed us their truffle mushcentral question was how to grow them rooms, the most expensive in the world in sand, in which normally absolutely (in New York they go for Sh92,260 nothing survives as it is completely in($1,000) a kilo). capable of holding water.

The cost of these mushrooms is partly so high because they don’t grow Here though it’s different. The tomato plants use 95 per cent of the waunder every plant, and you don’t know ter dripped onto their roots, each one which ones will deliver the goods and

Other Voices Mohammadu Buhari Nigerian President

Karen Attiah (Washington Post) Nigeria just threw the world a curveball. For months, there were doubts that Nigeria would survive 2015. Headlines fixated on the winds of Boko Haram’s terrorism combining with the ethnic and religious tensions that divide the north and the south to create a storm of rampant violence that would tear the country apart.

But over the weekend, Nigeria, a country of 170 million, gave the world a largely peaceful and credible election.

T

Ban Ki-Moon UN Secretary-General

Israel has managed to turn a desert into paradise and farmers can grow cherry tomatoes through drip irrigation . FILE which ones won’t — until the researchers here will have scratched their heads over the problem some more. Do we have researchers scratching their heads like this in Kenya? We do. Do agricultural research institutions exist here?

Yes again, both local and international, and they do great work.

Our challenge is not really the quality of the research itself but the dissemination of its consequences.

This is not something that happens automatically. Serious budgets must be allocated, including for marketing as well as for the technical expertise required. Not least for helping our farmers to be bold enough to consider new approaches.

There is so much scope for ramping up our agricultural productivity, whether through planting better quality seeds or appropriate application of fertiliser, whether through irrigation or post-harvest storage, or through other means of moving beyond mere subsistence levels. (Don’t even get me going on reversing land fragmentation.)

Yet we know farmers, here as in most parts of the world, are renowned for their conservative attitudes and their scepticism regarding change. “We tried it before and it failed,” we hear too often, or simply “we lack the resources”.

Added to this is the high average age of our farmers, although more recently a few Young Turks have been entering

what has been until recently the most unglamorous of occupations.

We celebrate the new energy and knowledge about farming being spread through our Saturday papers; we cheer on those doing good work in research; we applaud the young (and some not so young) Kenyans finding new ways of farming; and we encourage the emerging emphasis on irrigation.

Of course too we gasp at the performance of the horticulture sub-sector (which has been much assisted by Israelis).

Now we need to bring all this together and transform our thinking on what farming is and how it can deliver so much more than it has been doing.

When I was in Israel, the Galilee International Management Institute signed a deal with Vihiga Governor Moses Akaranga to work together to double the county’s agricultural output in two years.

And if in Vihiga, why not elsewhere in Kenya? Come on, young Kenyans, grasp the opportunity, as you have done in IT and in other fields. And come on, Kenyan universities, emulate the folk from Galilee. We can do much more, and there’s no better way than by emulating those curious and determined Israelis. mike.eldon@depotkenya.org

Ron Prosor (New York Times) UN is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year. Intended as a temple of peace, this once great global body has been overrun by repressive regimes that violate human rights and undermine international security. The problem with the UN is that the leaders of member states do not rule with the consent of the governed. They use the body as a forum to deflect attention from their own ruthless rule. They turn a stage for courageous statecraft into a tragic theater of absurd.

Ali Abdullah Saleh Yemeni President

Mohammed Bazi (Reuters) With direct Saudi military intervention, Yemen has now been dragged into a regional proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia. This series of battles in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and Bahrain have defined the Middle East since the US invaded Iraq in 2003. The traditional centers of power in the Arab world — Egypt, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states — grew nervous about the rising influence of Iran: its nuclear ambitions; its sway over the Iraqi government; its support for the militant groups Hezbollah and Hamas.

10

BUSINESS DAILY | Thursday April 2, 2015

EDITORIAL & OPINION

Published by the Nation Media Group, Kimathi Street, Nairobi

Linus Gitahi: Chief Executive Officer | Tom Mshindi: Acting Editorial Director Ochieng’ Rapuro: Managing Editor P.O.Box 49010 GPO Nairobi Telephone: 254 20 328 8104 Fax: 254 20 214849 Email : bdfeedback@nation.co.ke www.bdafrica.com

B≥itain must also lea≥n to ≥espect Kenyan laws

T

he UK military has been training in Nanyuki for four decades now and their presence has come to define the town.

Economically, spending by the soldiers has been the lifeline of the city especially after industries collapsed in the Moi era. Lately, it has thrived even more as the soldiers begun renting houses outside barracks.

In short, a withdrawal of the British soldiers would have a devastating economic consequence. This prospect though is rising by the day as delays in signing deal valued at Sh8 billion set in.

According to the UK newspaper, the Mail, the Government of President Kenyatta wants a renewal of the contract for UK to train here pegged on the condition that any crimes committed locally be prosecuted here.

Obviously, the president is coming from somewhere. In the past UK soldiers have been accused of rape, maiming and destroying pastures through munitions. By demanding to be exempted from local laws, they obviously want a blank cheque.

The Western world has had such a cheque by particularly refusing to sign up to the International Criminal Court (ICC) even as they encourage prosecution of leaders and war lords from other nations

at The Hague. Needless to say, this is sheer hypocrisy informed by the Bismarck doctrine of Might is Right. This is the button the UK seems to be pushing. Knowing very well that Kenyans need the money, they must be hoping the government will sign on the dotted line even as they step up hostilities through travel alerts on a country they want to stay in.

Our take is that the economy of Nanyuki should be safeguarded by securing the contract. But not at any cost. The local laws must be obeyed. And if the UK thinks it can get away with impunity, it is better advised to look at the billions it has paid or is about to pay at its own courts for human rights abuse and criminal acts committed by its agents in Kenya.

Furthermore, the Kenyatta regime it signed the earlier deal under is different from the current one. Clearly, such a deal would have to be scrutinised by a more independent Parliament and a better informed public.

The UK should try to encourage the rule of law and fairness in Kenya than seeking impunity for its own. Legally and morally, there is no reason for signing a deal that perpetuates the largely discredited colonial legacy.

Cla≥ify exams di≥ective

T

he declaration by Ministry of Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang that underage pupils will be allowed to register for examinations until 2023 should be communicated more clearly to the heads of schools than merely issuing Press statements.

Many school heads are known to ignore such statements and even circulars issued by the ministry such as is the case for the on fees and holiday tuition.

The ministry should endeavour to follow up with the head teachers and take actions against those who ignore the decree.

Nearly 6,000 students who sat for the KCSE in 2013, for example, were aged 16 years and below yet the requirement is that students should complete Form Four when

they are, or are about, 18 years of age.

The problem comes about because of the students having joined Form One and Class One while under-age.

Parent are keen to see their children finish school early, so some enrol them while they are below six years of age out of ignorance or out of arm-twisting the head teachers.

Yet children are supposed to have grown physically and mentally before they join school.

Unfortunately, the law stipulates the age of joining school but the ministry has kept on changing its policy between allowing and not allowing registration of underage pupils and students for exams. After communicating this latest decree, the ministry should not change the policy again and extend the date of allowing such registration beyond 2023.

To comment...

The editor invites comments on our content and topical issues. Please include your full names, telephone number and address in your letter.

Email: bdfeedback@nation.co.ke

“Could you please come back in an hour or so? I can’t access Google at the moment...”

A≥e we ≥eady fo≥ a data ≥evolution?

BITANGE NDEMO TECHNOLOGY

I

n July 2012, the UN Secretary- General Ban Ki Moon appointed a High Level Panel of Eminent Persons on Post-2015 Sustainable Development Agenda. In its report, the panel calls for the building of a global data consensus.

According to the report, “Too often, development efforts have been hampered by a lack of the most basic data about the social and economic circumstances in which people live… Better data and statistics will help governments track progress and make sure decisions are evidence-based; they can also strengthen accountability.”

This is simply a call for a data revolution. Free big data from satellite imagery is pouring unimaginable data into the hands of a few people who can convert it into knowledge and necessary visualization for better decision making.

The revolution is upon us. Ignoring the transformation is not wise.

Unfortunately, African states are not leveraging on these data advances to change the livelihood of their people.

This is because African National Statistics Offices (NSOs) are debating whether such data conforms to known statistical standards and methods. Yet technology will continue to decolonize data. We must embrace thinking outside the box and adapt to emergent ideas.

The proliferation of Information Technology and Communications (ICTs) is making it possible to visualize whether patterns over time. Combining such technologies with satellite capacity, it is now possible to predict weather behavior on real time basis.

Poring over such analysed data, you begin to see the impact on vegetation.

Farmers can use such data to predict rainfall patterns, and adapt accordingly.

Satellite imagery on housing types can also be analysed to estimate poverty patterns and development in rural areas.

Such estimates were not possible before.

Statisticians used conventional methods to gather such data and in most cases did not produce accurate data. Now, data gathered using conventional means can be triangulated with satellite data to give a fuller, three-dimensional picture.

These new formats of data are referred to as big data. A new concept that describes any large amount of structured (organised), semi-structured and unstructured data that has the potential to be quarried for information.

It is then analyzed and used to predict future events or to extract other value from data. For example, in Uganda mobile data has been used to predict population movement patterns. These patterns also are associated with the spread of certain diseases such as common cold. With such knowledge, we can begin to contain more complex diseases such as Ebola.

For decades we have used basic, conventional, statistical methods to monitor and evaluate projects. However, most projects failed and continue to fail precisely because of reliance on such archaic methods. Big data from social media could be more effective and efficient to use in monitoring and evaluation. The capture and analysis of social media data can provide instantaneous sentiments analysis from a population.

This is already happening in marketing research, which is increasingly relying on social media.

New terminologies, such as social media strategy management, crowd sourcing and digital ethnography are emerging. Organisations have started

VIEWS FROM ABROAD

to include social media as part of an overall budget or strategy.

But this new thinking has not been incorporated in African NSOs. The preference for basic data collected using archaic methods will in the long run undermine accuracy of African data. While it is true that we need data on basic development metrics to plan, budget, and evaluate, there is need to keep pace with technological changes.

Moreover, for data to be useful and valuable, it must be accurate, timely, disaggregated, and widely available.

Unfortunately, in Africa, data remains a government secret. For instance, Tanzanian parliament this week outlawed using data from sources other than the national statistics organisation. Yet, for any statistical system to work towards improving policy and enhance accountability, it must allow all stakeholders to collect and freely exchange and analyse high-quality data.

There is perhaps no other place on earth where good data is more urgent than in sub-Saharan Africa. African NSOs must begin to embrace big data and a culture of sharing data. This is because with ICTs, no one has the monopoly of analyzing any form of data. Big data does not undermine traditional statistical methods. It is complimentary. After all, statisticians try to get numbers that are closest to actual picture. Big data is not just validating the data we have; it improves it.

With GPS mounted on motorbikes in Nairobi, young Kenyans are leveraging on big data as well as technology, to build new enterprises and create employment.

It is therefore imperative that we embrace the data revolution. Geoffrey Moore said, “Without big data, you are blind and deaf in the middle of a freeway.”

The writer is an associate professor at University of Nairobi’s School of Business

Opinions f≥om a≥ound the wo≥ld

Do the Iranian deal, defeat IS

Nigeria’s oil subsidy unrealistic

Concern over US proxy wars

Do the Iran deal. Defeat the barbaric marauders of Islamic State. In the fragmenting mayhem of the Middle NEW YORK TIMES East, these must NEW YORK be the American priorities. They are objectives rooted in the strict Western interest. An Iranian nuclear accord lasting at least a decade that has fiercely monitored programmes is the best conceivable outcome of protracted talks.

Curiously, in an attempt to align with public sentiment, in an election year, government was stampeded by THE DUARDIAN popular demand to LAGOS concede and accommodate a N10/litre subsidy on a reduced pump price of N87/litre. Clearly, this decision was not thoroughly thought through, as it ignored the significance of Naira exchange rate on the domestic pump price.

With the launching of the US-backed military intervention in Yemen, virtually the entire Middle East is engulfed THE HERALD by military conflict.

HARARE Washington’s pursuit of policies from one conflict to the next that are seemingly as odds with one another has provoked mounting concern from major US think-tanks and editorial boards- not to mention nominal allies in Europe.

Thursday April 2, 2015 | BUSINESS DAILY

11

EDITORIAL & OPINION

Innovation will help in waste management AXUMITE GEBRE-EGZIABHER ENGINEERING

T

his week the County Government of Kiambu was officially the first to implement a pilot semi-aerobic sanitary landfill, popularly known as the Fukuoka method landfill in Africa.

The Fukuoka method is based on a simple physical principle: air flows into waste layers through natural convection processes by making use of temperature differences between the landfill layers and the atmosphere.

This engineering innovation allows aerobic action to occur, and greatly reduces the production of methane and improves the qual-

ity of the waste water - leachate – discharged from stabilising waste.

The pilot builds upon over 50 years of rigorous research that started in Fukuoka city in Japan.

With the county - and indeed the whole of Kenya and Africa grappling with the challenge of waste management, this decision

by Kiambu is in the right direction. UN-Habitat will offer full support to Governor William Kabogo to harness waste to become an important resource for sustainable urban development.

Together with the County Government of Kiambu, the Ministry of Land, Housing and Urban Development, the Jomo Kenyatta Uni-

Letters

versity of Agriculture and Technology, Fukuoka University, and other waste management professionals, we are formulating a strategy for sustainable technology transfer for the technology that is being piloted.

The capacity building that will be implemented shall strengthen the capacities of the County Government of Kiambu workers and parties that will be involved in the construction, operations, and management of the solid waste landfill, through on-the-job training, development of operations manuals and monitoring methodologies.

Today, Kiambu County has about 1.5 million people and 50

per cent of these people are living in urban areas; making Kiambu Kenya’s fastest urbanising county. In addition to improving waste management, we are also supporting innovation in the area of revenue enhancement for Kiambu County. UN-Habitat is also supporting youth empowerment through establishment of the profile of livelihood opportunities and needs, design and construction of a pilot youth livelihood hub and launching a pilot youth livelihood programme.

The writer is the director, |Regional Office for Africa at the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat)

The editor welcomes brief letters on topical issues. Opinions expressed here are not necessarily those of the editor or publisher. They may be edited for clarity, space or legal considerations.

Send via e-mail to bdfeedback@ke.nationmedia.com

County workers solicit bribes from motorists Lessons for

Kenya from Nigeria polls

A

s I alighted from my car at a side pavement on a quiet street with no traffic a woman in yellow uniform entered the vehicle and ordered my driver to park by the side.

A man in plainclothes then approached us as I complained saying “don’t worry you are not being harassed just give her Sh4,000 or you will be officially charged Sh15,000.”

When I told the Nairobi City County official to write a driving offence citation, she started talking to the man who she said was her “boss” in mother tongue.

The lady inspector wanted a bribe but when she realised I was recording her conversation on my smartphone she told us “I will teach you the law because you recording...”

She made us drive through traf-

L

you do not want to be cruel to animals. Your argument is with the human race, so I’m sure you can find alternative means to get your message over.

ast weekend, Nigerians went to the polls to elect a president and MPs. General (Rtd) Muhammado Buhari emerged the winner of the presidential race. Notably, the presidential election was a two horse race between the incumbent president, Goodluck Jonathan and the former military ruler who was ousted in 1985 by General Ibrahim Babanginda.

Buhari’s political party, All Progressive Congress(APC), the country’s main opposition party, carried the day.

While I commend Jonathan for conceding defeat, various reasons have been attributed for his failure to recapture the presidential seat. His failure to tame corruption in his government and inability to eradicate the insurgent Boko Haram militant group contributed to his dismal performance in the presidential race.

Kenyans can borrow a leaf from the just concluded Nigeria’s presidential election. Unlike the 2011 elections that were marred by post election violence, this time round, there was no violence.

In fact, the incumbent congratulated the winner.

Our political leaders should learn to accept defeat.

JEAN GILCHRIST, Nairobi

JOSEPH G MUTHAMA, Thika

City Hall in Nairobi. FILE fic to where cars are impounded. I asked her to issue the charge sheet but she ignored us and another woman appeared.

She wrote on a plain piece of paper the fees to be paid at City Council Headquarters in Nairobi for “Obstruction of traffic”.

We were there from 2pm to 6 pm yet my car impounded over wrong accusations.

City Hall officials propagate official looting and harassment.

Their vindictive actions are not experienced in good cities.

HITEN PATEL, via email

Nyamira governor’s directive is misplaced

N

yamira governor John Nyagarama order forcing county government workers to undergo HIV tests shoiws that he has been gravely misadvised.

There is no country that forces its citizens to be tested for HIV. Therefore no county should take

this direction. Forced tests are a breach of patient confidentiality, a key tenet in HIV programmes.

Compulsory testing will be counter-productive as it may lead to people not being tested at all because many will fear stigma and discrimination. Some will collude with test-

ers to deliver negative results.

Kenya has reached a critical stage, where 72 per cent voluntarily know their status, according to the Kenya Aids Indicator Survey.

Forced testing will wipe away the gains.

GEORGE NYAIRO OBANYI , Nyamira

Activists must stop mistreating animals during protests

W

hile we at KSPCA support free speech and the right to demonstrate, we are appealing to the activists to stop using live animals for the purpose.

They get very stressed when they

are used like this. In fact after the last demonstration with donkeys, some of the weaker ones died, as much because of the stress they had been put under as the fact that they were not very strong. I’m sure that

Integ≥ate public pa≥ticipation in county matte≥s BETTY MAINA POLICY

A

s counties come up with legislation for public participation, they should seek to integrate public participation in all activities that call for this kind of engagement with the public. This approach will encourage adherence without excuses. The establishment of an institution in the Counties, to manage Public Participation, should be carried out with care to ensure that it is not problematic as the officer in charge will not be able to force county executives to comply with the regulations.

Such an office should be responsible for co-ordination of public participation while each arm or department of the government should take care of the implementation aspects since they have the expertise in that particular area. The department should also carry out stakeholder mapping and engagement. County laws should outline the rules of engagement during the process.

Public participation also has to be structured in such a way that the right stakeholders are invited to meetings for a given issue.

A guiding principle of public participation is that it should provide meaningful information in a way that the targeted individuals and groups understand and should involve mutual consultation. To target the right stakeholders, it is important to do a stakeholder mapping and analysis for more focussed discussions and qualitative public participation.

Platforms County governments still need to work on appropriate response times for adequate public participation. So far, some counties have been posting draft legislation to their websites hours before stakeholder engagement meetings or distributing bulky legislation in meetings and thereafter requiring feedback by the end of the meeting. This has led to the enactment of laws without meaningful engagement.

Counties also need to capitalise on already existing platforms present in the region which present them with an easy opportunity to reach the masses. Each case is unique and in some Counties, one finds well established village structures, in another women’s groups are predominant. By identifying the most appropriate public participation approaches, counties will reach out to the right stakeholders. It is not a matter of replicating what the neighbouring county is doing but of finding out what works for a given county. Still, Identifying stakeholders is not enough. to empower stakeholders to meaningfully participate in the process and especially on the budget processes.

The writer is the chief executive of Kenya Association of Manufacturers

12

BUSINESS DAILY | Thursday April 2, 2015

NEWS INDEPTH

Nige≥ia’s new leade≥s have an oppo≥tunity to wo≥k towa≥ds t≥ue democ≥acy GOVERNANCE Africa’s biggest economy has been held back by the legacy of

three decades of army misrule: a mix of corruption, weak institutions, political, ethnic and religious violence, and a dearth of infrastructure

T

he victory of opposition candidate Muham- congratulate him on winning this weekend’s elecmadu Buhari in Nigeria’s presidential elec- tion, a spokesman for Buhari’s All Progressives tion could mark a turning point towards Congress (APC) said.

Now Africa’s biggest economy, Nigeria has nevgenuine democracy for the country, improving the image and moral standing of Africa’s trou- ertheless been held back by the legacy of three decades of army misrule: a mix of corbled giant.

The defeat of President Goodluck ruption, weak institutions, political, Jonathan, whose People’s Democratethnic and religious violence, and a The≥e is a ic Party (PDP) has run Africa’s most dearth of infrastructure. populous nation since it returned to Nigeria accounts for about one in g≥eat deal of civilian rule in 1999, was the first time six Africans and a fifth of African GDP, disaffection with a Nigerian head of state lost power giving it huge potential influence on to an opposition challenger through the na≥≥owness of the continent and beyond, but instead the ballot box. leade≥ship choices for decades it has been a by-word for “It’s not the result that we wanted corruption and chaos.

CHRISTOPHER CRAMER, but it’s a good day for Nigeria if we It ranks 136th out of 174 on TransSCHOOL OF ORIENTAL AND show the world we can run a credible parency International’s index of perelection,” said a minister in Jonath- AFRICAN STUDIES IN LONDON ceived corruption, a problem that an’s government, who did not wish to affects Nigerian society from top to be named because others in the PDP were angry bottom and cannot be turned around overnight, about the result. even by the austere Buhari.

Nevertheless, a transfer of power from one poJonathan telephoned Buhari on Tuesday to litical party to another, achieved through voting rather than violence, is a marked improvement on previous elections since 1999 which were widely believed to have been rigged in favour of the PDP. “It will help reinforce perceptions across the continent that the old ways are much harder to get away with,” said Antony Goldman, a business consultant with high-level contacts in Nigeria. He highlighted the role of voters armed with mobile phones and Internet connections in preventing vote-rigging.

While the challenge in turning Nigeria around is as daunting as ever, it would be a positive outcome if the ruling class no longer felt it could stay in power regardless of performance, analysts said.

Credible elections “Especially in Nigeria, given the history, the bad name it has, I think this will be a positive surprise,” said Antoon de Klerk, a portfolio manager at Investec Asset Management who invests in African bonds and currencies.

“There’s a greater degree of accountability. The fact that they can lose means they have to deliver.” Therein lies the challenge for Buhari, whose democratic credentials have yet to be fully tested.

He first wrote his name in Nigerian history when, as a general, he ousted a civilian government in a 1983 coup. He was deposed two years later by another general.

Now, he faces a new set of problems, not least the Boko Haram Islamist insurgency in the North and the risk of unrest flaring up in the oil-producing Niger Delta when Jonathan, a son of the Delta, is no longer in power. “There is a great deal of disaffection with the narrowness of the leader-

Nigerians celebrate president-elect Mohammadu Buhari’s victory in Kaduna city on March 31, 2015. AFP

ship choices and a worry over the military past and credentials of candidates,” said Christopher Cramer, a professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.

“Nigeria will only really garner greater international authority if it can show a much more effective political and security strategy for dealing with the multiple challenges the country faces, from Boko Haram in the North to the ongoing corruption, criminality, and conflict in the Niger Delta.”

There is also the issue of Nigeria’s finances, which have been badly hurt by a dramatic fall in global oil prices.

“If you’re running an unsustainable set of macro-economic policies sooner or later, unless that changes, you’re going to get into trouble,” said Jan Dehn, head of research at Ashmore Group, an emerging markets investment manager.

“Nigeria has not concluded its adjustment to the fall in oil prices. The fact that the election now looks to be drawing to a close is very good because this will now free the government to be able to undertake that much-needed adjustment,” he said.

Consultant Goldman said that even in opposition, the PDP had a role to play in turning Nigeria into a genuine democracy.

“To have a democracy you need not only to have credible elections and a choice,” he said.

“The PDP has enjoyed the trappings of power for 15 years. The challenge for it now is to prove

Thursday April 2, 2015 | BUSINESS DAILY

13

NEWS INDEPTH POLITICS

REUTERS

How vote≥s fo≥gave Buha≥i’s many sins du≥ing a≥my ≥ule

itself to be effective in opposition.” Meanwhile, a US State Department official who asked not to be named said Washington was ready to work with whoever was democratically elected in Nigeria and offered a positive, though cautious, assessment of Buhari.

“Buhari has peacefully contested the last few presidential elections and accepted the results of those votes, even when he questioned the credibility of the process,” the official said.

“His leadership of the opposition over these years has demonstrated a commitment to democracy that would seem to suggest he is participating in Nigeria’s new era that began in 1999,” he said.

Jailed journalists Jonathan’s PDP has been in charge since the end of army rule in 1999, but he has been losing popularity due to a number of corruption scandals and the rise of the Boko Haram Islamist insurgency in the northeast.

US government experts believe Buhari will be a more effective leader and one less prone to accusations of corruption than Jonathan, according to a second US official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

This official said Buhari had a reputation for integrity and suggested that his background as a military commander might help him reform the Nigerian army and other security forces, making them more effective against Boko Haram militants. “The General,” as Buhari is known to

supporters, kicked out an elected government in a 1983 coup d’etat and ushered in an era of military dictatorship in Africa’s most populous nation that lasted 15 years. During his 18 months of rule from 1983 to 1985, Buhari jailed journalists and opposition activists without trial, executed drug traffickers by firing squad and ordered soldiers to thrash those who failed to line up in an orderly fashion at bus stops.

US-Nigerian ties have been strained in recent years by US frustration at Jonathan’s failure to move more aggressively against Boko Haram, which has killed thousands of people in its attempt to carve out an Islamic state.

Nigeria has accused the United States of failing to sell it arms it needs to fight Boko Haram and of not sharing enough intelligence. It has also rejected claims of human rights abuses that have limited some US military assistance.

J Peter Pham, director of the Atlantic Council think tank’s Africa Centre, suggested there was a desire on both sides for a new chapter in the relationship.

“There has been such frustration on the part of the administration and policymakers with the last few years of the Jonathan administration that ... a number of people (here) have taken the attitude that any change would be good,” he said.

“Any opportunity for a ‘reset’ in the relationship, or at least to start afresh, I think will be welcomed by both sides.”

- REUTERS

Nigerians had to forgive former military ruler popular Blogger Tolu Ogunlesi told Reuters.

Muhammadu Buhari many sins for him to “It was a case of ‘Jonathan has to go and I will vote for anything else’.” win this weekend’s election.

The son of a canoe maker and the first presi“The General”, as his supporters now affectionately call him, kicked out an elected govdent since the 1999 restoration of democracy ernment in 1983, ushering in an era of military never to have worn an army uniform, Jonathdictatorship in Africa’s most populous nation an started his first term with much good will that was to last 15 years. in his favour.

But it was quickly eroded, as he failed to face During his 18 months in charge, he imprisup to an Islamist insurgency in the northeast oned journalists and opposition activists and corruption flourished. without trial, executed drug traffickers by His administration was beset by multibilfiring squad and ordered soldiers to thrash those who failed to queue in an orderly fashlion dollar graft scandals in the oil business. ion at bus stops.

When central bank governor Lamido Sanusi complained that up to $20 billion Fittingly, perhaps, he was him(Sh1.8 trillion) was unaccounted self deposed in another military for at the state oil firm, Jonathan coup.

“His rule was nasty, brutish and Jonathan made it simply sacked him. perceived failure to take the Ismercifully short,” the Economist easy fo≥ Buha≥i by Alamist Boko Haram insurgency magazine wrote in a column last month, describing the 72-year-old disappointing so seriously at first did not bother as less “awful” than incumbent many Nigerians as most were not many people Goodluck Jonathan, whose years directly affected. in office have been plagued by corBut when the militants kidnapped TOLU OGUNLESI ruption scandals. more than 200 school girls from BLOGGER Ladi Netimah, a senior civil servthe town of Chibok last April, ant condemned to 65 years in provoking global outrage, his prison by Buhari’s junta for “doing business administration’s plodding response trigwhile in government”, has since forgiven the gered protests that ultimately played a part general. his downfall.

She served nearly four years of her sentence By contrast, Buhari’s short rule in the 1980s and describes him as someone who “wanted earned him a reputation as strongman with things done properly but went about it in the no time for corruption or rebellion, both of wrong way”. which he squashed.

“He was too heavy handed,” she told Reuters.

His image as an ascetic wearing a simple kafBut over the ensuing years, Buhari reinvented tan and spurning the champagne-fuelled lifehimself as a democrat, and his four attempts style enjoyed by much of Nigeria’s elite, added to take power peacefully demonstrated a comto his appeal. But demographics may also have mitment to the ballot box if nothing else. been a deciding factor.

With many Nigerians upset at Jonathan’s “More than two thirds of the population is under 40 and too young to remember Buhari,” performance, especially over their two biggest bugbears, corruption and security, more said Max Siollun, author of “Soldiers of Forand more were prepared to overlook Buhari’s tune”, a history of post-colonial Nigeria. past, and its cobwebs of military austerity More remarkable is the willingness of those and authoritarianism. “Jonathan made it easy mistreated or imprisoned by “The General” for Buhari by disappointing so many people,” to give him another chance.

Nigerian president-elect Muhammadu Buhari (right) reads his acceptance speech in Abuja yesterday. Mr Buhari praised the “statesmanship” of outgoing leader Goodluck Jonathan for conceding defeat in a vote that saw an incumbent lose for the first time in the nation’s history. AFP

14

BUSINESS DAILY | Thursday April 2, 2015

REGIONAL NEWS DEVELOPMENT Ugandan president stops sale of State firms, policy that had been criticised

P≥ivatisation of State fi≥ms haunts Museveni yea≥s on

JOHANNESBURG Zuma receives inquiry report on 34 mine workers shooting

BY BD CORRESPONDENT IN KAMPALA

been sold off through sale of assets, share sale, joint ventures and pren March 17, President Yoweri emptive rights.

Museveni must have woken Others have been disposed of up from his more than 20-year through initial public offerings, conexperiment, admitting that he should cessions, auctions, debt equity swap not have blindly adapted privatisation, and repossessions. pushed by the World Bank and InterDetails obtained from the privatisation unit, indicate by June 30, 2011, national Monetary Fund. the government had conducted 95 sell “We are not going to allow more off transactions and 39 liquidations, privatisation of government institutions,” Mr Museveni told a cabinet raising more than Ugandan Shs200 meeting. billion. Out of these, 52 had been privatised, five repossessed, The statement might 11 concessioned, six auchave surprised not only tioned, two disposed of Ugandans, but development partners as Mr Muthrough debt swaps, 13 We had to have sold through pre-empseveni had for more than a foothold in the tive rights and two as 20 years stuck by the policy, touting it as the best for financial secto≥. joint ventures. modern economic developThe sell-offs, the We didn’t have Museveni ment despite criticism. governto sell UCB afte≥ ment claimed had been However, Moses Mwase, the privatisation tu≥ning it a≥ound prompted by failure by unit executive director the entities to operate said President Museveni’s at full capacity as well as EZRA SURUMA, MUSEVENI’S speech on ending privatisaoperating in losses.

ECONOMIC ADVISER tion of State firms had been From a known Marxtaken out of context. The ist, Mr Museveni adopted privatisation unit, a department under a capitalist stance, privatising almost the Ministry of Finance is charged with all government parastatals. the divesture of public entities.

Experts have criticised the privatiBut what has prompted Mr Musevsation plan over the years. eni to change his mind?

Ezra Suruma, an economic adviser in Museveni’s government and former Before the National Resistance finance minister, says: “This (privitisaMovement (NRM) took over government in 1986, Uganda had more than tion) was a price too high, but because 130 parastatals, but almost all have we needed support, we agreed to the

O

Uganda Clays which looked promising continues to operate in the red. FILE World Bank and IMF policies.’’ However, he notes that he opposed the sell of Uganda Commercial Bank (UCB). “We had to have a foothold in the financial sector. Thus we didn’t have to sell UCB after turning it around,” he said.

Mr Suruma was the UCB managing director at the time when it was sold.

Gideon Badagawa, the executive director of Private Sector Foundation Uganda, said the government made a mistake of handing over key entities without preparing the public.

“Many Ugandans were not ready to be exposed to markets because they were too green to know what was going on,” he notes.

To get to the bottom of Mr Museveni’s frustration, let’s look at the performance of key entities that were privatised and their contribution to easing unemployment and boosting economic growth.

Uganda Clays Limited, a bricks and roofings manufacturer was in October 1999 sold to Kenya Clay Products Limited through an initial public offering.

Uganda Clays, which looked promising is currently knotted by debts amounting to more than Shs13 billion. For over a decade, the company has not given shareholders dividends and continues to operate in the red.

Kinyara Sugar Works, one of Uganda’s largest sugar producers was in October 2006 sold to Mauritius’ giant cane miller Rai Holdings. The company is partly owned by the government of Uganda (31 per cent) and Rai Holdings (69 per cent). However, its performance continues to spark debates on financial stability as the government has had to intervene with bailouts to keep it afloat.

Uganda Telecom which was in June 2000 sold to Detecom continues to struggle under its new owners Lap Green. The telecom firm is heavily indebted but has, according to outgoing managing director, Ali Amir, cut its losses by more than 40 per cent amid low financing and unpaid bills by government amounting to more than Shs7 billion.

Bat Uganda has been reduced to a sales agency, selling its manufactured products in Kenya. First, it closed the leaf processing plant before moving the factory to Nairobi, Kenya. It recently invited bidders to buy off its factory and store premises on Jinja Road and is now operating in rented premises.

Uganda Railways Corporation has almost become a scrap yard trademarked by a collection of junk locomotives.

Libya fea≥s jihadists a≥e now ta≥geting t≥easu≥es Libyan antiquities officials looked on with horror at Internet video footage that showed Islamist extremists wielding sledgehammers and power tools to grind ancient Iraqi treasures into dust.

They fear the Islamic State group jihadist movement’s growing influence means the fate that befell these priceless Assyrian and Akkadian artefacts now awaits their own rich heritage dating back millennia.

Footage of the cultural atrocity showed militants smashing exhibits at the museum in Mosul, Iraq’s second city and the main IS stronghold since its capture in a lighting June offensive last year.

The jihadists say the antiquities are anti-Islamic, promote paganism and

must therefore be destroyed. Libya, another country rich in archaeological heritage, has been in turmoil since the 2011 overthrow of longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi in a Nato-backed uprising.

And IS influence in the North African country is growing. Iraqi officials believe around 90 objects were destroyed or damaged in Mosul, most of them originals. The rampage was compared to the Taliban’s destruction in 2001 of the famed towering Bamiyan buddhas in Afghanistan.

The militants also ransacked Mosul’s library, burning thousands of rare books and manuscripts spanning centuries of human learning.

It was a desecration Unesco described as “cultural cleansing”. Since

BRIEFING

Smoke rises following a town in Libya. AFP then the jihadist movement’s tentacles have spread to Libya, where local Islamist groups are pledging allegiance to IS. Libya has had two governments and parliaments since the Islamistbacked Fajr Libya (Libya Dawn) coalition seized Tripoli last year. The internationally recognised government

and parliament fled to the east.

The country is awash with weapons and heavily armed militias are battling to control its cities and oil wealth.

A senior Libyan official said that since Kadhafi’s fall there has already been looting of cultural treasures and damage to ancient sites.

“We fear that the hands of the extremists will extend to our heritage, like in Iraq,” antiquities chief Ahmed Hassan said. Libya has five sites on Unesco’s World Heritage List, and none can be considered safe. In the west, IS has a presence some 320 kilometres from the fabled ancient city of Leptis Magna, which Unesco says was “one of the most beautiful cities of the Roman Empire”.

-AFP

South Africa’s presidency said it had received a report on an inquiry into the police shooting of 34 striking mine workers in 2012, the deadliest security action since the end of apartheid. The inquiry, headed by retired judge Ian Farlam, was set up by President Jacob Zuma to look into events that led to the killing of the miners at Lonmin’s Marikana platinum mines on August 16, 2012. The killings, the worst of their kind since apartheid ended in 1994, became known as the “Marikana massacre.”

Zuma was currently on a state visit in Algeria.

JUBA South Sudan to lay fibre optic cable in two years South Sudan plans to lay a fibre-optic cable to bring broadband Internet to its citizens in the next two years, its minister for telecommunications and postal services said. Africa’s newest nation, which gained independence from Sudan in 2011, but was plunged into an internal conflict in December 2013, has telecoms operators such as Vivacell but lacks the infrastructure to offer high speed Internet connections. Rebecca Joshua Okwaci said that the government will lay 1,600 kilometers of fibre across the country and link it with undersea cables via Uganda and Tanzania.

LUSAKA IMF applauds Zambia for resolving tax issues The International Monetary Fund has applauded Zambia’s efforts to resolve tax issues in its copper mining industry, but warned that only further tightening of fiscal and monetary polices would contain the country’s large deficits. President Edgar Lungu directed Zambia’s finance and mining ministers to change royalties on mining firms by April 8, saying the copper-producer could consider temporarily reverting to the tax regime of 2014.

The decision to increase royalties in January for open pit mines to 20 per cent from six per cent, and those for underground mines to eight per cent from six per cent, rattled unions and miners in Africa’s second-largest copper producer.

N’DJAMENA Chad, Niger troops drive Boko Haram out of town Soldiers from Chad and Niger have driven Boko Haram Islamist militants from a northern Nigeria border town they have occupied since late last year. A joint offensive by Nigeria and its neighbours has succeeded in driving the militants from most of the positions they held earlier this year, an advance that forced Nigeria to delay a February election.

The town of Malam Fatori, which was seized

by Boko Haram in November, had been the scene of fighting between coalition forces and the militants, and military sources falsely claimed to have retaken it in January.

Chad’s Communications Minister Hassan Sylla Bakari said this time there was no doubt who controlled the town.

Thursday April 2, 2015 | BUSINESS DAILY

BUSINESS DAILY

BUSINESS

THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2015

PERSPECTIVE Experts say new monitoring tool has the potential to boost Africa’s entire seed sector

New seeds-t≥acking platfo≥m ≥enews hope of bette≥ p≥ofits cards (ranging from excellent to extremely poor) on the performance eeds are indispensable comof the seed sector in Kenya, Uganda, modities in sub-Saharan Africa, South Africa and Uganda. especially since the majority of These are the countires where Tasai was piloted but plans are under way to its populace rely solely on agriculture incorporate seed sector assessment refor their livelihoods.

Traditionally, seeds were easy to acports of 20 more African countries by cess as they were passed down from 2017. The platform is also compatible with mobile phones and can therefore one generation to another. After each be viewed on the move. harvests, families set aside a portion Mainza Mugoya, the policy officer of their produce for preservation as seeds -to be used in subsequent plantat the East African Farmers Federation ing seasons.

(EAFF), told Digital Business that the Such informal systems have increassystem will enable Kenyan policy makingly become unpopular, following the ers compare the country’s seed sector advent of high breed varieties sold by performance with other nations’ and seed companies. These seeds come learn from best practices.

For instance, he added, the platform with desirable traits such as drought shows that Kenya is lagging behind tolerance, disease resistance and the with regards to industry competitivepromise of bountiful harvest.

The modern seed sector comprises ness since most of its seed companies of many players who have are still dominated by invariably created a gap the government.

This, he said, acts as between seed breeders and The small an impediment to other their intended beneficiarquantities cost less companies keen on enies - farmers. Agricultural and this p≥opels tering the sector. experts note that African By contrast, the seed nations like Kenya need fa≥me≥s to t≥y them industries in South Afto have a vibrant seed secout... tor where all players are rica, Uganda and ZimDR EDWARD MABEYA, TASAI babwe are dominated able to perform their roles by the private sector. A effectively.

PROJECT HEAD vibrant seed industry In a bid to tackle these comprising of multiple players ultiand other problems facing the sector, The African Seed Access Index (Tasai), mately leads to small scale farmers a new online platform has been develaccessing wide varieties of high qualoped. The recently-launched platform ity seeds at competitive prices. Tasai provides a one-stop destination for also monitors the number of novel tracking the performance of all seed seed varieties released in a country, sector players in various countries. a feature that helps stakeholders to The online tool monitors seed retrack new research and development search and development initiatives in the sector. and seed industry competitiveness.

In this regards, South Africa leads It also tracks seed delivery services to the pack with 221 varieties of maize small scale farmers as well as prevailing released over the last three years compolicies and institutions that promote pared to 35 in Kenya, 28 in Zimbabwe their access to farmers. and 12 in Uganda.

“We hope that this portal will en“This is an issue of concern in our able countries to identify gaps in their seed sector which needs to change,” seed sector that need to be addressed,” John Mburu, an agricultural econosaid Dr Edward Mabaya, the assistant mist at the University of Nairobi said. director of Cornell University’s InterHe attributed Kenya’s poor rating to national Institute for Food, Agriculture minimal investment by the public and and Development (CIIFAD). private sector in seed research and Dr Mabaya is also the head of the development. Dr Mburu also blamed stringent regulations such as the threeTasai project.

The platform currently offers score year period required before new seed

TECHNOLOGY SYSTEMS INNOVATIONS INFORMATION GADGET REVIEWS

inside>>

Cutting-edge technologies give a glimpse of mobile’s future Pages 16-17 >>

BY SARAH OOKO

S

TECHNOLOGY

Dr Edward Mabaya talks about the African Seed Access Index.

COURTESY

. .

Seed sector value Sh73 billion - worth of seeds industry in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Sh14.5 billion- value of South Africa’s seed sector making it the best performing industry on the continent.

varieties are released into the country, compared to just a year in Ethiopia for Kenya’s poor performance.

“Farmers in Kenya have to wait longer before they can begin planting newly released varieties. This costs them,” said Dr Mburu.

The online platform is also aimed at enabling countries to benchmark on their seed delivery services to small scale farmers. Tasai for instance shows that while South Africa stands out for having developed a mature and diverse commercial seed sector, Kenya outshines it when it comes to making seeds available to farmers in small packages (less than five kilo-

grammes). “The small quantities cost less and this propels farmers to try them out. So other nations can learn from Kenya’s success story,” Dr Mabaya explained.

The online platform also gauges the effectiveness of national seed policies in stamping out fake seeds which impede agricultural production and dissuade farmers from purchasing hi-breed seeds. Kenya has the worst score on this index.

Dr Mabaya said that Tasai provides investors with an avenue for easily identifying gaps in the African seed sector which they can explore for financial gains. The Tasai score cards are based on extensive research by local experts in various countries, and will be updated annually to reflect changing trends in national seed sectors.

This, Dr Mburu said is “so we can tell each year if local interventions in the seed sector are bearing fruit or not.”

Experts note that the online portal has the potential to boost the performance of the entire seed sector in sub-Saharan Africa.

Number of varieties released in Kenya (three-year moving average)

15

Dimension Data ranked as one of top five employers globally

Page 17 >> TECHTALK

Motorola Moto: Smartphone powerhouse mark of re-invenstion

Page 18 >> GADGET REVIEW

16

BUSINESS DAILY | Thursday April 2, 2015

Thursday April 2, 2015 | BUSINESS DAILY

DigitalBusiness

DigitalBusiness

Cutting-edge technologies give a glimpse of mobile’s futu≥e

Technology MBUGUA NJIHIA

EXHIBITION Mobile World Congress showcases

MWC IN NUMBERS

innovations like ‘water ATM’ set to benefit Kenya age. Nearby, crowds jostle for a picture with a Maserati Qauttroporte running Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors that also comes with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and 4G modems.

BY LARRY MADOWO Audi, Ford, Volvo, BMW and every other car manufacturer wants in on the acebook chief executive Mark connected car craze.

Zuckerberg talking about giving “A growing number of vehicle manfree Internet to two thirds of the ufacturers are supporting connected world, Jamii Telecom founder Joshua in-car entertainment services, but deChepkwony walking through the halls velopments in m-commerce are still at of Fira Gran Via in Barcelona looking for an early stage,” a note from the analyst the next big thing, musician and entre- house Ovum said. preneur Will.i.am forecasting the future “I probably can’t meet with all the car of entertainment or former president companies that are calling,” says EricThabo Mbeki giving a keynote. sson senior vice president Ulf Ewadsson. “They’re transformThese are some of the ing their industry and people you might have there’s a serious drive for bumped into at the 2015 Ce≥tain count≥ies change.”

Mobile World Congress a≥e ve≥y keen on (MWC) which was hosted in eight halls at a venue having something 5G roll-out At the Swedish farm’s which is about nine times ≥eady fo≥ ≥oll-out expansive corner at the the size of the KICC’s plein 2020 nary hall.

MWC, a Danish water Buzzwords roll off the pumps manufacturer ERIC DAHLMAN, 5G EXPERT tongue easily here. It is not Grundfos is showing off alien to many of the particia ‘water ATM’ it is pilotpants, what with the many multi-level ing in 40 locations in Kenya using prehuge stands and other excesses. paid cards.

The four-day exhibition held on Just two metres away at a purposeMarch 2 to 5 attracted executives from built stage fit for a rock concert, Ericsson the world’s largest mobile operators, soft- president Hans Vestberg had just made ware companies, equipment providers, bold projections about such diverse subInternet companies and firms from au- jects as the future of traffic management tomotive, finance and healthcare. and 5G. “Seventy per cent of the world’s popuConnected cars lation will have mobile broadband covAt the Broadcast Village, the inimi- erage in 2015,” he says. table business anchor Richard Quest Unrelated, but illustrating that pronods off as a producer edits a pack- jection, the Chinese firm Huawei signed

Sh43.8bn contribution to economy 240,000 square metres floor space 93,000 visitors in 2015 Sh75,332 visit exhibition 12,675 part-time jobs 5,000+ CEOs 3,800 journalists and analysts 1,900 exhibitors 200 countries represented

Tech Talk

F Notebooks and smartphones, among other technology tools, should be an executive’s constant companion. FILE

Wo≥king sma≥t: Why you a≥e only as efficient as you≥ tools

R

unning an enterprise can be quite taxing, what with having to deal daily with a myriad of issues across different business functions . These include sales, marketing, customer service and even product development.

To maintain my sanity, I have over the years tried and tested a number of tools that allow my team and I to keep on top of things and not get overwhelmed by the day- to- day matters. While not representing the full repertoire of the tools that power my ways of work, I trust that this curated list will help you work smarter.

Notebooks are the constant companion for any executive but I prefer to move around with as little business baggage as possible and therefore on my smart phones I use Trello and Google Keep to take down notes, jot down those random thoughts that will need to be further explored or shared with a team member later. These two sync to the cloud allowing for access from any Internet- enabled device and best of all, they are both available free.

Rapportive is a firm favourite, having been purchased in 2012 by LinkedIn; the world’s largest professional network. Rapportive allows me to see what those I am in communication with are up to by aggregating their social profiles, presenting a current “state” and where possible allowing for connection beyond the email channel. It is available as a plugin on Firefox and Chrome.

Streak is a nifty web application that plugs into

17

Gmail, one of the more popular email clients for both personal and business use. As a customer relationship management tool, it has capabilities that allow my team and I to manage our deal pipelines and service support issues. I however love it best for its email management capabilities that allow for tracking and scheduling, making me more efficient when following up on communication.

Recent engagements have seen my work phone number published online on highly trafficked websites and on thousands emails—a good thing for business but a nightmare during downtime where the peculiar habits of the Kenyan consumer come to the fore with potential clients picking the weird hours to call and ask for product information or seek clarification. Here I use TrueCaller to get the caller id and allow for a more personalised greeting as a good percentage of daily calls are with people I am communicating to for the first time.

TrueCaller uses the wisdom of the crowds to give you the most up to date particulars of the calling party.

During downtime, the simple whitelist feature found on many phones comes in handy where only calls from family and select members of my team will come through.

You are only as efficient as your tools.

Mr Njihia is CEO of Symbiotic | www.mbuguanjihia.com | @mbuguanjihia

Source: GSMA & Fira Barcelona

MWC HITS & MISSES HITS Firefox & Orange tie up for Klif phone, a Sh3,600 phone coming to Kenya and 12 other African countries.

Samsung Galaxy 6 Edge wins Best New Handset at Global Mobile Awards after criticism that it copied iPhone 6.

2015 will be the year of the wearable with the Huawei Watch and the LG Urbane LTE promising to fight for space on your wrist alongside the upcoming Apple Watch.

Barcelonalast lastmonth. month. AFP AFP The Samsung Galaxy S6 is presented during the 2015 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona

a deal with Ghanaian firm Surfline to roll out 4G services across the West African nation two days later.

As Ghana rolls out 4G commercially, Safaricom just announced a small-scale pilot in Nairobi as the world is discussing 5G.

Save money “Certain countries are very keen on having something ready for roll-out in 2020, especially because of the Olympics,” says 5G expert Eric Dahlman.

But what will all the ubiquitous connectivity of the future do?

“The Internet of Things (IoT) is transforming family life through the wireless connection of devices in the home, such as smart meters and security systems, helping to save money and increase peace of mind,” notes GSMA in a new report.

GSMA organises MWC and tries to make sense of tomorrow’s mobile technology.

It is the kind of technology driving away Mr Quest’s viewers from TV to their mobile phones and tablets. “By 2020, 50 per cent of all TV content will be consumed on demand, and 50 per

cent will be consumed from non-traditional devices,” predicts researcher Thorsten Sauer.

To be at MWC is a bit like to simultaneously experience 10 different national music festivals, drop in on all the courses at the University of Nairobi and watch three TV channels all at once. Despite this confusing muchness, it’s popularity keeps growing and visitor numbers were up nine per cent in 2015. It promises cheerfully as you leave; see you next year!

MISSES Some people slept through Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s session when his Internet.org partners were speaking, they even got booed.

Glaring lack of diversity among the C-level executives, attendees and media at the event. Only 18 per cent were women and there were even fewer black faces.

Major mobile phone manufacturers all but ignored low-cost consumers in Kenya and other emerging markets, preferring headline-grabbing, batteryconsuming smartphones.

lmadowo@ke.nationmedia.com

Tech bytes Online marketing platforms remain unexploited in Kenya Companies that have embraced digital marketing are enjoying brand dominance both online and offline, says Martin Muli, the founder of East Africa digital Marketing Summit & Show.

E-commerce platforms, for instance, frequently use push notifications to increase customer engagement by driving traffic up 150 per cent while further increasing conversion by 20 per cent to 50 per cent.

Push notifications further provides endless flexibility as it can be adapted from global to user segmented to location-based marketing.

“Mobile is a powerful tool for reducing churn and deepening customer engagement,” says Mr. Muli.

The East Africa digital marketing, has or-

ganised a fair to be held on April 9 to 10 to showcase the latest digital trends at a time when the profile of consumers is evolving to a more aware consumer, and an emerging middle and upper class driving demand for the applications that sup-

port their lifestyle.

“By using mobile as a marketing tool, brands can increase the frequency of transactions with customers and, in many cases, increase the amount of each transaction. Just as important, marketers can reduce customer churn and increase customer satisfaction,” he adds.

In Kenya, applications such as Rupu, Hello Food, Easy Taxi, Uber, Ma3route have made life convenient. From making consumers aware of ongoing product and service deals that are available to aiding motorists and passengers aware of traffic on the road.

Government apps such the Nairobi City Council Ejijipay has made accessing parking tickets.

Global companies are now tapping into the growing Kenyan digital market, Uber a glo-

bal technology company connecting riders with drivers, through a smartphone app, launched its services in Nairobi.

“The potential of digital marketing in Kenya is towering, unexplored and unexploited, if we can harness and equip our generation with the skills and knowledge through such summits and conferences then, we can make the Kenya of our dreams,” said Parinaz Firozi, MD Jumia Kenya.

Dimension Data ranked as one of top five employers globally Dimension Data has been certified as one of the top five employers in the world for outstanding employee offerings, based on annual independent research carried out by the Top Employers Institute.

The stringent criteria that organisations are assessed on include talent manage-

ment, leadership, training and development and initiatives to attract, retain and engage employee talent.

“Our extensive research concluded that Dimension Data Global forms part of a select group of employers that advance employee conditions worldwide. Their people are well taken care of,” Judith Oude Sogtoen, director of International Business Development for the Top Employers Institute.

Dimension Data has a direct presence in

58 countries across the Americas, Asia, Australia, Europe, and the Middle East & Africa and has over 26,000 employees.

“We’re extremely proud to be recognised as one of the top five organisations in the world for our employee practices. Dimension Data’s purpose is to make a difference –first and foremost for our clients, our valuable and talented people, as well as our shareholders and our societies,” Brett Dawson, Dimension Data’s Group CEO said.

Dimension Data says in the highly competitive IT landscape, it has a clear strategy to attract, engage, develop and retain talent across all levels of the organisation.

“Our innovative Fast-Track programme helps attract and retain young talent , and our global Leadership Forum provides a multi-layered approach to support the ongoing development of our leaders.’’

Tech in action

BY OKUTTAH MARK

KPSA, Intel pa≥tne≥ to launch class≥oom laptop

I

ntel Corporation in collaboration with the Kenya Private School Association (KPSA) has unveiled an e-learning classroom solution for private schools at Syokimau Blessed School in Machakos County.

Under the partnership, Intel has provided purpose built education laptops that are rugged and durable enough to withstand rough handling and fits in a school environment.

The laptops are dust and liquid spill resistant. The laptops also come with features and applications to support scientific inquiry and also have built -in digital security, online protection, integrated tools for multimedia viewing and creation and are preloaded with Intel Education Software.

Manufacturer The chipset manufacturer will also be providing Education content access Point, a low cost, high capacity Wifi Access Point, Internet Router and Server in one box.

The Intel Education Content Access Point is an easy-to-use device that stores, manages, and publishes digital content for schools with low or intermittent connectivity.

It is light and portable and provides up to five hours of continuous, reliable use, even if there is an interruption in power. “A major challenge in the adoption of ICT in schools is how to use it as a tool that complements learning in a classroom.

Acquiring laptops or tablets is one thing but successfully integrating that technology in the learning environment through a holistic approach is a challenge most of our schools are struggling with,” the CEO of the Kenya Private School

Association (KPSA), Peter Ndoro said. Other partners in the deal include Mitsumi Distribution, Text Book Cente and Virtual Essence Limited, who bring together an end-to-end e-learning solution that can be replicated with ease in many private schools across the country.

Alex Twinomugisha, Intel’s Business Development Manager of Education in East Africa said many schools have been making uninformed decisions with regards to purchasing the right devices for learning.

“We have seen schools purchase laptops designed for consumers or businesses as most do not know that there are laptops that are purpose-built for education,” Mr Twinomugisha. “ By collaborating with KPSA and the other partners, we have developed a holistic solution that empowers the teacher on how to integrate technology in the classroom, acquire relevant digital education content, help the school select the right devices for education,” he added.

Robust ICT—ideally one laptop for each student and teacher, plus appropriate infrastructure—plays an important role in preparing students for 21st Century success.

In the present, it means a classroom full of engaged and motivated students. In the future, this translates into a workforce armed with the skills they’ll need to compete in a technology and knowledgebased society.

Carolyn Muithya, the Director of Syokimau Blessed School said the solution would enable teachers to prepare, analyse, collaborate and communicate ideas using the technology. “

blog of the week http://www.kachwanya.com/ Safaricom and Airtel – be worried, WhatsApp update enables calls Twitter, Facebook and almost every other App require us to download updates daily (Twitter) and weekly (Facebook). These updates largely do nothing except provide “bug fixes” – bugs you never knew existed.

The most exciting news is that WhatsApp new update features a call functionality. Pause, take a deep breath and relax. This is big news. To explain, let us start by going back in time – back to early last year.

The expectation that many will stop using the cellular based phone calls and turn to VoIP courtesy of WhatsApp should get the telecos worried.

This is because, if we use Safaricom as our bench mark, we find that by the half year to NOTE: Blog quotes in this section are edited and do not in any way represent the views of this newspaper or its editors.

16

BUSINESS DAILY | Thursday April 2, 2015

Thursday April 2, 2015 | BUSINESS DAILY

DigitalBusiness

DigitalBusiness

Cutting-edge technologies give a glimpse of mobile’s futu≥e

Technology MBUGUA NJIHIA

EXHIBITION Mobile World Congress showcases

MWC IN NUMBERS

innovations like ‘water ATM’ set to benefit Kenya age. Nearby, crowds jostle for a picture with a Maserati Qauttroporte running Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors that also comes with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and 4G modems.

BY LARRY MADOWO Audi, Ford, Volvo, BMW and every other car manufacturer wants in on the acebook chief executive Mark connected car craze.

Zuckerberg talking about giving “A growing number of vehicle manfree Internet to two thirds of the ufacturers are supporting connected world, Jamii Telecom founder Joshua in-car entertainment services, but deChepkwony walking through the halls velopments in m-commerce are still at of Fira Gran Via in Barcelona looking for an early stage,” a note from the analyst the next big thing, musician and entre- house Ovum said. preneur Will.i.am forecasting the future “I probably can’t meet with all the car of entertainment or former president companies that are calling,” says EricThabo Mbeki giving a keynote. sson senior vice president Ulf Ewadsson. “They’re transformThese are some of the ing their industry and people you might have there’s a serious drive for bumped into at the 2015 Ce≥tain count≥ies change.”

Mobile World Congress a≥e ve≥y keen on (MWC) which was hosted in eight halls at a venue having something 5G roll-out At the Swedish farm’s which is about nine times ≥eady fo≥ ≥oll-out expansive corner at the the size of the KICC’s plein 2020 nary hall.

MWC, a Danish water Buzzwords roll off the pumps manufacturer ERIC DAHLMAN, 5G EXPERT tongue easily here. It is not Grundfos is showing off alien to many of the particia ‘water ATM’ it is pilotpants, what with the many multi-level ing in 40 locations in Kenya using prehuge stands and other excesses. paid cards.

The four-day exhibition held on Just two metres away at a purposeMarch 2 to 5 attracted executives from built stage fit for a rock concert, Ericsson the world’s largest mobile operators, soft- president Hans Vestberg had just made ware companies, equipment providers, bold projections about such diverse subInternet companies and firms from au- jects as the future of traffic management tomotive, finance and healthcare. and 5G. “Seventy per cent of the world’s popuConnected cars lation will have mobile broadband covAt the Broadcast Village, the inimi- erage in 2015,” he says. table business anchor Richard Quest Unrelated, but illustrating that pronods off as a producer edits a pack- jection, the Chinese firm Huawei signed

Sh43.8bn contribution to economy 240,000 square metres floor space 93,000 visitors in 2015 Sh75,332 visit exhibition 12,675 part-time jobs 5,000+ CEOs 3,800 journalists and analysts 1,900 exhibitors 200 countries represented

Tech Talk

F Notebooks and smartphones, among other technology tools, should be an executive’s constant companion. FILE

Wo≥king sma≥t: Why you a≥e only as efficient as you≥ tools

R

unning an enterprise can be quite taxing, what with having to deal daily with a myriad of issues across different business functions . These include sales, marketing, customer service and even product development.

To maintain my sanity, I have over the years tried and tested a number of tools that allow my team and I to keep on top of things and not get overwhelmed by the day- to- day matters. While not representing the full repertoire of the tools that power my ways of work, I trust that this curated list will help you work smarter.

Notebooks are the constant companion for any executive but I prefer to move around with as little business baggage as possible and therefore on my smart phones I use Trello and Google Keep to take down notes, jot down those random thoughts that will need to be further explored or shared with a team member later. These two sync to the cloud allowing for access from any Internet- enabled device and best of all, they are both available free.

Rapportive is a firm favourite, having been purchased in 2012 by LinkedIn; the world’s largest professional network. Rapportive allows me to see what those I am in communication with are up to by aggregating their social profiles, presenting a current “state” and where possible allowing for connection beyond the email channel. It is available as a plugin on Firefox and Chrome.

Streak is a nifty web application that plugs into

17

Gmail, one of the more popular email clients for both personal and business use. As a customer relationship management tool, it has capabilities that allow my team and I to manage our deal pipelines and service support issues. I however love it best for its email management capabilities that allow for tracking and scheduling, making me more efficient when following up on communication.

Recent engagements have seen my work phone number published online on highly trafficked websites and on thousands emails—a good thing for business but a nightmare during downtime where the peculiar habits of the Kenyan consumer come to the fore with potential clients picking the weird hours to call and ask for product information or seek clarification. Here I use TrueCaller to get the caller id and allow for a more personalised greeting as a good percentage of daily calls are with people I am communicating to for the first time.

TrueCaller uses the wisdom of the crowds to give you the most up to date particulars of the calling party.

During downtime, the simple whitelist feature found on many phones comes in handy where only calls from family and select members of my team will come through.

You are only as efficient as your tools.

Mr Njihia is CEO of Symbiotic | www.mbuguanjihia.com | @mbuguanjihia

Source: GSMA & Fira Barcelona

MWC HITS & MISSES HITS Firefox & Orange tie up for Klif phone, a Sh3,600 phone coming to Kenya and 12 other African countries.

Samsung Galaxy 6 Edge wins Best New Handset at Global Mobile Awards after criticism that it copied iPhone 6.

2015 will be the year of the wearable with the Huawei Watch and the LG Urbane LTE promising to fight for space on your wrist alongside the upcoming Apple Watch.

Barcelonalast lastmonth. month. AFP AFP The Samsung Galaxy S6 is presented during the 2015 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona

a deal with Ghanaian firm Surfline to roll out 4G services across the West African nation two days later.

As Ghana rolls out 4G commercially, Safaricom just announced a small-scale pilot in Nairobi as the world is discussing 5G.

Save money “Certain countries are very keen on having something ready for roll-out in 2020, especially because of the Olympics,” says 5G expert Eric Dahlman.

But what will all the ubiquitous connectivity of the future do?

“The Internet of Things (IoT) is transforming family life through the wireless connection of devices in the home, such as smart meters and security systems, helping to save money and increase peace of mind,” notes GSMA in a new report.

GSMA organises MWC and tries to make sense of tomorrow’s mobile technology.

It is the kind of technology driving away Mr Quest’s viewers from TV to their mobile phones and tablets. “By 2020, 50 per cent of all TV content will be consumed on demand, and 50 per

cent will be consumed from non-traditional devices,” predicts researcher Thorsten Sauer.

To be at MWC is a bit like to simultaneously experience 10 different national music festivals, drop in on all the courses at the University of Nairobi and watch three TV channels all at once. Despite this confusing muchness, it’s popularity keeps growing and visitor numbers were up nine per cent in 2015. It promises cheerfully as you leave; see you next year!

MISSES Some people slept through Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s session when his Internet.org partners were speaking, they even got booed.

Glaring lack of diversity among the C-level executives, attendees and media at the event. Only 18 per cent were women and there were even fewer black faces.

Major mobile phone manufacturers all but ignored low-cost consumers in Kenya and other emerging markets, preferring headline-grabbing, batteryconsuming smartphones.

lmadowo@ke.nationmedia.com

Tech bytes Online marketing platforms remain unexploited in Kenya Companies that have embraced digital marketing are enjoying brand dominance both online and offline, says Martin Muli, the founder of East Africa digital Marketing Summit & Show.

E-commerce platforms, for instance, frequently use push notifications to increase customer engagement by driving traffic up 150 per cent while further increasing conversion by 20 per cent to 50 per cent.

Push notifications further provides endless flexibility as it can be adapted from global to user segmented to location-based marketing.

“Mobile is a powerful tool for reducing churn and deepening customer engagement,” says Mr. Muli.

The East Africa digital marketing, has or-

ganised a fair to be held on April 9 to 10 to showcase the latest digital trends at a time when the profile of consumers is evolving to a more aware consumer, and an emerging middle and upper class driving demand for the applications that sup-

port their lifestyle.

“By using mobile as a marketing tool, brands can increase the frequency of transactions with customers and, in many cases, increase the amount of each transaction. Just as important, marketers can reduce customer churn and increase customer satisfaction,” he adds.

In Kenya, applications such as Rupu, Hello Food, Easy Taxi, Uber, Ma3route have made life convenient. From making consumers aware of ongoing product and service deals that are available to aiding motorists and passengers aware of traffic on the road.

Government apps such the Nairobi City Council Ejijipay has made accessing parking tickets.

Global companies are now tapping into the growing Kenyan digital market, Uber a glo-

bal technology company connecting riders with drivers, through a smartphone app, launched its services in Nairobi.

“The potential of digital marketing in Kenya is towering, unexplored and unexploited, if we can harness and equip our generation with the skills and knowledge through such summits and conferences then, we can make the Kenya of our dreams,” said Parinaz Firozi, MD Jumia Kenya.

Dimension Data ranked as one of top five employers globally Dimension Data has been certified as one of the top five employers in the world for outstanding employee offerings, based on annual independent research carried out by the Top Employers Institute.

The stringent criteria that organisations are assessed on include talent manage-

ment, leadership, training and development and initiatives to attract, retain and engage employee talent.

“Our extensive research concluded that Dimension Data Global forms part of a select group of employers that advance employee conditions worldwide. Their people are well taken care of,” Judith Oude Sogtoen, director of International Business Development for the Top Employers Institute.

Dimension Data has a direct presence in

58 countries across the Americas, Asia, Australia, Europe, and the Middle East & Africa and has over 26,000 employees.

“We’re extremely proud to be recognised as one of the top five organisations in the world for our employee practices. Dimension Data’s purpose is to make a difference –first and foremost for our clients, our valuable and talented people, as well as our shareholders and our societies,” Brett Dawson, Dimension Data’s Group CEO said.

Dimension Data says in the highly competitive IT landscape, it has a clear strategy to attract, engage, develop and retain talent across all levels of the organisation.

“Our innovative Fast-Track programme helps attract and retain young talent , and our global Leadership Forum provides a multi-layered approach to support the ongoing development of our leaders.’’

Tech in action

BY OKUTTAH MARK

KPSA, Intel pa≥tne≥ to launch class≥oom laptop

I

ntel Corporation in collaboration with the Kenya Private School Association (KPSA) has unveiled an e-learning classroom solution for private schools at Syokimau Blessed School in Machakos County.

Under the partnership, Intel has provided purpose built education laptops that are rugged and durable enough to withstand rough handling and fits in a school environment.

The laptops are dust and liquid spill resistant. The laptops also come with features and applications to support scientific inquiry and also have built -in digital security, online protection, integrated tools for multimedia viewing and creation and are preloaded with Intel Education Software.

Manufacturer The chipset manufacturer will also be providing Education content access Point, a low cost, high capacity Wifi Access Point, Internet Router and Server in one box.

The Intel Education Content Access Point is an easy-to-use device that stores, manages, and publishes digital content for schools with low or intermittent connectivity.

It is light and portable and provides up to five hours of continuous, reliable use, even if there is an interruption in power. “A major challenge in the adoption of ICT in schools is how to use it as a tool that complements learning in a classroom.

Acquiring laptops or tablets is one thing but successfully integrating that technology in the learning environment through a holistic approach is a challenge most of our schools are struggling with,” the CEO of the Kenya Private School

Association (KPSA), Peter Ndoro said. Other partners in the deal include Mitsumi Distribution, Text Book Cente and Virtual Essence Limited, who bring together an end-to-end e-learning solution that can be replicated with ease in many private schools across the country.

Alex Twinomugisha, Intel’s Business Development Manager of Education in East Africa said many schools have been making uninformed decisions with regards to purchasing the right devices for learning.

“We have seen schools purchase laptops designed for consumers or businesses as most do not know that there are laptops that are purpose-built for education,” Mr Twinomugisha. “ By collaborating with KPSA and the other partners, we have developed a holistic solution that empowers the teacher on how to integrate technology in the classroom, acquire relevant digital education content, help the school select the right devices for education,” he added.

Robust ICT—ideally one laptop for each student and teacher, plus appropriate infrastructure—plays an important role in preparing students for 21st Century success.

In the present, it means a classroom full of engaged and motivated students. In the future, this translates into a workforce armed with the skills they’ll need to compete in a technology and knowledgebased society.

Carolyn Muithya, the Director of Syokimau Blessed School said the solution would enable teachers to prepare, analyse, collaborate and communicate ideas using the technology. “

blog of the week http://www.kachwanya.com/ Safaricom and Airtel – be worried, WhatsApp update enables calls Twitter, Facebook and almost every other App require us to download updates daily (Twitter) and weekly (Facebook). These updates largely do nothing except provide “bug fixes” – bugs you never knew existed.

The most exciting news is that WhatsApp new update features a call functionality. Pause, take a deep breath and relax. This is big news. To explain, let us start by going back in time – back to early last year.

The expectation that many will stop using the cellular based phone calls and turn to VoIP courtesy of WhatsApp should get the telecos worried.

This is because, if we use Safaricom as our bench mark, we find that by the half year to NOTE: Blog quotes in this section are edited and do not in any way represent the views of this newspaper or its editors.

18

BUSINESS DAILY | Thursday April 2, 2015

DigitalBusiness GADGET REVIEW

Gadget reviews

Phone boasts of a stellar set of specifications and functions

Moto≥ola Moto Tu≥bo: Sma≥tphone powe≥house’s ma≥k of ≥e-invention Front and back of the Motorola Moto Turbo smartphone.

FILE

I

f there is one smartphone company that has made a great comeback after facing defeat, it has to be Motorola. The brand has come a long way since it reinvented itself with the Moto X in the second half of 2013.

With the launch of the Motorola Moto Turbo, the company has gone one step further than the Moto X and created a smartphone that boasts of a stellar set of specifications. It also uses an interesting new material in its build. We are more than intrigued by what Motorola has on offer. Let’s get down to brass tacks.

With the Moto Turbo, Motorola introduces a new material — ballistic nylon — which is essentially a thicker, tougher variant of synthetic nylon. Quick trivia: ballistic nylon was used in the flak jackets worn by World War II soldiers.

The criss-cross black thread runs across the rear of the phone, which looks elegant to say the least. The trademark dimple with the Motorola logo has been replaced by a metal plate

New material With the Moto Turbo, Motorola introduces a new material — ballistic nylon.

This is essentially a thicker, tougher variant of synthetic nylon.

The material was used in the flak jackets worn by World War II soldiers.

This makes the phone tougher and look more elegant.

on the Moto Turbo. The primary camera is above this metal plate, flanked by two LED flash modules. The front of the device is quite ordinary, at least when compared to the design of the rear.

Thanks to its large battery, the phone is a fairly thick 11.2mm. Moreover, the weight of 166g is on the heavier side when compared to

other flagship smartphones. Thankfully, the sides of the phone are only 8.3mm thick and it slopes gently to its thickest point.

This makes handling the phone that much easier, though we still think that the smaller bezels on the Moto X (Gen 2) are more ergonomic.

The volume rocker and the power button are both on the right edge of the phone. Interestingly, the Nano-SIM tray is attached to the volume rocker. At first, this seems like an ingenious piece of design but in case a user fidgets too much and damages the tray, the SIM card and volume controls will both be lost. Just like the Moto X (Gen 2), the Moto Turbo sports a 5.2-inch Super AMOLED screen with Corning’s Gorilla Glass 3 for protection from scratches. The only difference here is the Moto Turbo has a resolution of 1440x2560 pixels (QHD), which translates to a whopping pixel density of 565ppi.

This is one of the crispest screens we’ve seen on a phone, and spotting pixels is impossible. Being an AMOLED screen, the colours do tend to pop but not as much as the screen on the Moto X (Gen 2).

Also, there is a weird yellow cast which is visible when viewed from an angle. We noticed that the screen doesn’t get as bright as we’d have liked it to get, but thankfully the sunlight legibility is not affected. Motorola also adds a unique water-repellant nano-coating to the Moto Turbo which can protect it from liquid spills.

Quite expectedly, Motorola has gone with premium components inside the Moto Turbo.

It rocks a Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 SoC with a quad-core processor clocked at 2.7GHz and an Adreno 420 GPU. There is an ample 3GB of RAM, and Motorola has launched the phone with 64GB of internal storage, which should be enough for most practical purposes. In any case, there is no microSD card slot to increase storage capacity.

CNET

ZTE launches Nubia series phones ZTE has launched new Nubia series smartphones, the Nubia Z9 Max and Nubia Z9 Mini, in China. The ZTE Nubia Z9 Max and ZTE Nubia Z9 Mini smartphones are the successors to the ZTE Nubia Z7 Max and Nubia Z7 mini respectively. Unfortunately, there is no word on whether the Nubia Z9 Max and Nubia Z9 Mini will be launched outside China.

The Nubia Z9 Max is the company’s first smartphone that runs on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor. Both the smartphones run on the Android 5.0 system.

Swipe Ultimate 3G tablet unveiled The Swipe Ultimate 3G looks fairly ordinary as far as Windows tablets go. It’s made of plastic and is pretty much all black in front, apart from the Windows Start button centred below the screen. If it wasn’t for that, and the faintly visible camera cutout above the screen, it wouldn’t matter which way you held this tablet. The borders are thick enough for thumbs to rest without activating anything on the touchscreen, and the rear has a rubberised texture with a pattern of concentric circles cut into it to give it a better grip. The front surface has a glossy, highly reflective finish.

Qualities of Canon 5D Mark III Camera At the 25th anniversary of its EOS system, Canon finally announced the long-awaited update to its full-frame 5D Mark II dSLR. The 5D Mark III is packed with capabilities for both still and video shooters, but at a much steeper price.

As you’d expect, the 5DM3 consists of a combination of technologies, features, and design updates rolled out in the EOS 7D and the more recent 1D X. The result is a camera that looks similar to its predecessor with a lot more capabilities and better performance, but isn’t as different when it comes to the basics — photo and video quality.

- CNET

Tech Demystified

Big data simplified: The benefits firms may reap from technology Although numerous organisations within the financial services industry have already successfully implemented big data programmes and are reaping the rewards, there are still many unsure as to what exactly big data means and what benefits they might realise by leveraging big data opportunities.

To a degree the term ‘‘big data’’ is in itself ambiguous, it does not always mean the exact same thing to everyone.

The adoption of technology by financial organisations has resulted in data being

stored and then used for analysis and decision-making purposes. As the technology solutions became more advanced, the proliferation of data and sporadic storage has resulted in a mesh of information and legacy systems that cannot easily integrate .

As a result, the amount of data being produced and utilised within these organisations grows exponentially.

What is big data?

Big data refers to a huge, complex set of data that traditional technologies could not

deal with before today’s big data technologies were developed.

What are big data technologies?

They provide methods for dealing with significantly larger data sets in an efficient and more cost-effective manner. It is a way of allowing you to process more than was previously possible.

By ‘‘dealing with’’ we mean being able to access the stored data and processing it (e.g. move, search, compare, split, analyse and collate etc) which traditional process-

ing methods wouldn’t allow. By ‘‘larger’’, we mean the data can be diverse in that it does not need to be related, located in the same place, or even be in a similar format.

By ‘‘efficient’’ we mean how you split the amount of work that a computer has to process into smaller packages and distributing these amounts of work across multiple devices. This means side-stepping the limitations of a single computer by allowing multiple computers to act as one. By ‘‘cost effective’ we mean that multiple cheaper computers working in parallel is significant-

ly cheaper than to invest in a single super computer.

Benefits realised Large data sets can be processed and presented in a single view. Allows disparate data sets to be analysed together.

Improved processing performance.

Allows data lineage to be understood, i.e. how data is generated, transformed and aggregated as it travels through an organisation.

- CNET

Thursday April 2, 2015 | BUSINESS DAILY

19

MONEY & MARKETS NEWS I REVIEWS I ANALYSIS

Equity’s ≥etu≥ns on sha≥eholde≥ funds seen falling PROFIT Return on equity will drop from 29.7pc

achieved in 2014 to 25.8pc in 2017, Citi says

BY GEOFFREY IRUNGU

Regional lender Equity Bank could be headed for lower returns on shareholder funds as it doubles bad debt provisions and margins on interest income fall, investment bankers at Citibank Global Markets say.

As Equity grows its loan book, the analysts say, the return on equity (ROE) — used to measure profitability — will fall from 29.7 per cent achieved in 2014 to 25.8 per cent in 2017.

Bad debt provisions will rise from the Sh1.6 billion in 2014 to Sh3.2 billion this year before soaring to Sh4.9 billion by 2017, according to Citi. This will come against a background of

major expansion in the lender’s balance sheet with loans projected to rise by 24 per cent every year for the next three years.

The bank is also likely to see the net interest margin (NIM) from loans — which indicates the net interest earned relative to the total loans — come down from the current 29.7 per cent to 25.8 per cent by 2017.

The analysts at the same time believe that fundamentals of the bank do not justify its current price of more than Sh50. Despite saying that the Equity Bank story has many positive aspects such as huge customer numbers, Citibank recommended to investors to sell at the current market price not-

Equity is embarking on increasing its presence in other parts of Africa.

It plans to enter Ethiopia, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo in the next two years. Afterwards, it wants to go into Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Kenyan sola≥ company wins global g≥ant

BY JOHN GACHIRI

Starting from scratch

Equity Bank CEO James Mwangi. The lender plans to expand into Ethiopia, Burundi and DRC. SALATON NJAU ing that the value can only be justified through unrealistic assumptions.

“We rate Equity ‘Sell/High Risk’ based on valuation. Although the story has many positive aspects, we believe the current stock price can be justified only with heroic and unrealistic assumptions,” said the investment bankers.

Although the bank has made profits through regional subsidiaries, most of its net profit comes from Kenya thereby posing economic and political risks.

“We assign this stock a ‘High Risk’ rating, given the heightened political and economic risk associated with the bank’s primary country of operations,” said Citi. The report though comes as

Some of the expansion will be through acquisitions while others will be done by starting from scratch, the bank’s CEO James Mwangi revealed during the annual general meeting on Tuesday.

The expansion will involve creating new shares and borrowing. The bank has already announced that it will issue 411 million shares to raise about Sh20 billion in new capital.

The shares will however have the effect of diluting existing shareholders’ stocks by 10 per cent with a possible impact on price on the NSE. Equity gained over Sh1 on the announcement.

Although Citi analysts were bearish about the stock’s price, those at local market intermediary Dyer and Blair Investment Bank were more bullish expecting accelerated growth in noninterest income while the loan book and deposits grow, though they did not declare a target price. girungu@ke.nationmedia.com

Kenya-based Givewatts is among nine companies that will receive the Abraaj Growth Markets Grant. It was chosen from a global pool of 178 firms. The grant targets organisations that offer unique solutions to communities in emerging markets.

The local branch of a global organisation led by Michael Ng’ang’a won in the energy and infrastructure category.

Givewatts supplies solar powered lamps to schools that are not connected to the national grid in Laikipia.

Private equity firm Abraaj said it expects uplifting of student grades and health after switchover to solar from kerosene lamps.

“Goals include improved grades of students, improved health of households, savings on kerosene expenditure and savings on mobile charging.

The long-term hope is to impact more households in rural Kenya...” said Abraaj in a statement.

CBK in Sh25bn bond tap sales afte≥ ove≥subsc≥ibed inf≥ast≥uctu≥e issue

BY CHARLES MWANIKI

World Bank senior economist John Randa. FILE

World Bank senior economist Jane Kiringai . FILE

Top economists locked out of cent≥al bank jobs

BY GEOFFREY IRUNGU

Prominent economists at the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) were locked out of the race for three top positions at the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) despite their long experience in policy making.

John Randa, a senior economist at World Bank, and Rose Ngugi, an adviser in the office of executive director for the Africa Group at the IMF in Washington, were among those who failed to make the short-list for interviews.

Mr Randa has previously worked as an advisor to the CBK governor while Dr Ngugi was in the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) which sets the benchmark interest rate.

Others failing to make the list of interviewees compiled by the Public Service Commission chaired by Margaret Kobia were Jane

Kiringai, a senior economist at the World Bank office in Nairobi, who applied for the position of deputy governor.

The Public Service Commission re-advertised the positions.

Joseph Ndiritu Muriithi, a former employee of the World Bank’s private lending and investment arm, the International Finance Corporation, also failed to make it to the list of interviewees. He had applied for the post of CBK governor.

Mr Muriithi was an assistant minister in former Mwai Kibaki’s government. Rachael Gesami, an economist who worked as an advisor at the IMF between 2003 and 2008 and as an advisor in the former Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s office, was also locked out of the race for the deputy governor’s post.

The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) yesterday began tap sales of the Sh25 billion bond on the same terms, days after it was oversubscribed.

The 12-year Sh25 billion infrastructure bond auctioned last week was oversubscribed 106 per cent indicating investor appetite for primary securities as T-Bills were also oversubscribed.

Seeking Sh25 billion at a coupon rate of 11 per cent, it attracted 1,101 bids worth Sh51.6 billion, with 823 bids worth Sh25.7 billion accepted.

The funds will finance medium- and long-term infrastructure projects in transport and energy sectors.

The weighted average rate of the accepted bids at 11.55 per cent was, however, higher than the coupon rate in spite of the heavy oversubscription of the bond.

“The higher yield was owed to the aggressive nature of bidding by investors as they sensed the Treasury’s urgent need for

funds,” said Genghis Capital fixed-income analyst Vinita Kotedia. The Treasury is seeking another Sh25 billion from the reopened bond.

Infrastructure bonds tend to attract heavy demand, including from foreign investors, since they are tax-free, and are amortised (paid) over the period of issue.

The previous infrastructure issue that went on sale in October last year seeking Sh15 billion attracted Sh38.7 billion.

All three Treasury bill auctions were last week oversubscribed.

The 91-day T-Bill issue for Sh1 billion attracted bids worth Sh1.12 billion, the Sh3 billion 182-day issue had bids worth Sh5.5 billion and the one-year issue saw bids worth Sh4.9 billion against a target of Sh4 billion.

Interest rates for the 91-day T-Bill have ranged between 8.4 and 8.7 per cent over the past six months, while those on the 182day offer have come in between 8.7 and 10.4 per cent. The oneyear paper has offered yields of

between 10.1 and 10.8 per cent over the period.

According to CBK, the money market was relatively liquid last week with the bond and bills auctions largely supported by maturities of repurchasing agreements (repos) and Term Auction Deposits (TAD), state payments and net redemption of bills and bonds.

The liquidity injection was partly offset by tax remittance, and CBK market mop up operations, and the payments for the bond.

“Liquidity in the money market is currently tight following the auction of the bond; we expect it to remain restrained for the remaining part of the week with the deadline for the payment of the bond due Tuesday,” said Ms Kotedia.

The tightening liquidity has resulted in a sharp rise in the interbank rate at which banks extend overnight loans to one another.

The rate has gone up to 8.25 per cent as per the latest CBK figures of March 31, having stood at 6.2 per cent two weeks ago.

20

BUSINESS DAILY | Thursday April 2, 2015

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

ROLE OF AUDITING &

ACCOUNTING FIRMS IN KENYA

Why accountancy is among top facilitators of business

By EVANS ONGWAE >>> eongwae@ke.nationmedia.com

T

o promote confidence and attract capital, corporate organisations should prepare statements that provide maximum insight into their financial condition and risk position. This is a requirement by the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs), one of the global bodies that promote responsible financial reporting.

Kenya adopted the International Accounting Standards (IASs), later renamed International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs), in 1998. The standards are applicable for all companies regardless of their size and field of activity. The legal framework for accounting requirements in Kenya is largely based on the Companies Act. The Accountants Act supplements the Companies Act and specifies rules for private sector accounting standards.

The Accountants Act establishes a three-pronged structure for regulating the accounting profession. On July 1, 1977, the Accountants Act, Chapter 531 established three bodies: (i) Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya (ICPAK); (ii)

Registration of Accountants Board (RAB); and (iii) Kenya Accountants and Secretaries National Examinations Board (KASNEB).

KASNEB administers examinations for people intending to qualify for registration as accountants and company secretaries.

The bulk of its student membership comprises those pursuing accountancy either at the technician level or as full certified public accountants (CPAs).

Kenya has made immense progress in closing the gap between national accounting and auditing practices and international standards, notably by adopting the IASs and ISAs as national requirements.

For investors who trade in securities, assurance that firms listed on the bourse adhere to prudent financial reporting is vital.

The securities market is regulated by the Capital Markets Authority (CMA), which monitors compliance with IASs for listed companies. Noncompliance could lead to imposition of fines or suspension from the Nairobi Securities Exchange.

Credibility is critical; whether the user is an individual contemplating a stock investment, a bank making

lending decisions, or a regulatory agency reviewing solvency. Users count on financial reports that are even-handed neutral, and unbiased.

An efficiently functioning economy requires credible financial information as a basis for making decisions about allocation of resources. If financial statements are to be useful, they must report economic activity without colouring the message to influence behaviour in a particular direction.

They must not favour one party over another. Financial statements must provide a neutral scorecard of the effects of transactions.

Markets are enormously efficient information processors — when

An efficiently functioning economy requires credible financial information as a basis for making decisions about allocation of resources.

they have the information and that information faithfully portrays economic events. Financial statements are one of the basic tools for communicating that information.

Demand for accurate financial reports exists because users believe that the reports help them in decision-making.

The principal financial statements of a corporation are the balance sheet, income statement, and statement of cash flows. Notes accompany these financial statements. The notes are used to present additional information about items included in the financial statements.

Certain information must be presented in notes. Accounting policies are to be disclosed as the first note or in a separate summary of significant accounting policies.

Accounting policies include such items as the method of inventory valuation and depreciation policies. Other information specifically requiring note disclosure is the existence of contingent liabilities and subsequent events.

Clearly, accountancy is the facilitator of business. In essence, accountancy is the language of business — it helps nations build commerce and economies.

Thursday April 2, 2015 | BUSINESS DAILY

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

21

ROLE OF AUDITING &

ACCOUNTING FIRMS IN KENYA

Accounting standards that mean a lot to investors

By EVANS ONGWAE >>> eongwae@ke.nationmedia.com

T

he outlook for Kenya looks promising. Growth which averaged less than 5 per cent in 2012 may now pick up driven by increased government spending and the devolved system of government.

The accounting reports must disclose all facts that may influence the judgment of an informed reader.

Business growth requires accurate financial statements and proper operating systems. To achieve this, many business resort to accounting and audit firms for the expertise.

For modern organisations, the value of audit accounting cannot be overemphasized. It is through accurate audit reports that investor and public confidence is enhanced. Many companies and firms are, therefore, interested in securing the services of accredited accounting and audit firms to help in ensuring correct representation of their financial statements.

Accounting is the language of business.

As such, accountants collect and communicate information about business enterprises or other entities to a wide variety of persons.

Making decisions sometimes is difficult because a public consensus is not reached to formulate a comprehensive ethical system that provides guidelines in making ethical judgments.

Because resources are limited people try to ensure that they are used effectively to determine how a business thrives. This fact places a substantial burden on the accounting profession.

The accounting reports must disclose all facts that may influence the judgment of an informed reader.

Users of financial statements include managers, shareholders, bondholders, security analysts, suppliers, lending institutions, employees, labour unions,

regulatory authorities, and the general public who rely on the reports to make decisions.

Therefore, accountants must measure performance accurately and fairly on a timely basis, so that the right managers and companies are able to attract investment capital.

An effective process of capital allocation is critical to a healthy economy. It promotes productivity, encourages innovation, and provides an efficient and liquid market for buying

and selling securities and obtaining and granting credit. Reliable and relevant information is needed for the securities market to operate effectively.

General purpose financial reporting provides information to present and potential equity investors, lenders, and other creditors to make decisions about providing resources to the entity through equity investments and loans or other forms of credit. Useful information to investors may also be helpful to others, but the overriding criterion by which

Mugo & Co. has offered advisory services for over 30 years now. The firm’s ethos and approach has been maintained from the approach of smaller to medium entities but with service packages only previously offered by large firms at a high cost. The firm is geared towards providing value added advice and service and to act as a business partner to its clients.

Our mission is to improve service delivery in an ethical and professional manner through Innovation, Application and Communication.

In 2012, Mugo and Co. became a member of AGN International, one of the largest accounting associations in the world. The membership gives us the ability to deal with client growth and service client offshore needs through the association. Joining AGN International ensures that as a firm we remain at the cutting edge of development in our industry through the constant interaction with the International associates.

Services: Accounting, Advisory, Audit , Tax, Training.

Address: Tel: +254 (020) 222 10 98 / 221 88 68 / 0722 264 919 Agip house|6th floor|Flat 9 Haile Selassie Avenue P.O. Box 51820 00200 Nairobi Kenya Email: info@mugo-co.com Accessing Global kNowledge

accounting choices can be judged is decision usefulness.

Relevance and faithful representation are the two fundamental qualities that make information decision-useful.

The right representation is characterized by completeness, neutrality, and being error-free, but it is made better by enhancing comparability, verifiability, timeliness, and understandability.

Although compliance is important, the more important role of accounting is to facilitate understanding of allocation of resources in order to add value to customers and produce value and revenue to pay employees and return profits.

If there were no business, there would be no taxes. If there were no business, there would be no financial reports. If there were no business, there would be nothing to audit. This makes compliance a key component of societal needs.

All publicly-held companies must have their annual financial statements audited by an independent certified public accountant. In accordance with Generally Accepted Auditing Standards, the auditor expresses an opinion regarding the fairness of the financial statements which are to be in conformity with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles.

Mazars is a global firm: Mazars is a global professional services firm with a unique integration model. Drawing on the knowledge and skills of more than 13,800 professionals in 73 countries, we build relationships by providing services based on quality and integrity. Mazars is also a member of Praxity Alliance, which enables Mazars to operate in 14 additional countries with additional 14,000 professionals.

Mazars Kenya is part of the Global Firm: Mazars has been operating in Kenya since 2010. Previously, the founding firm was registered under the name of Koimburi & Associates in 1981. Effective of September 1, 2010; Mazars entered this country for the first time in the context of its strong growth in the East African region. Mazars Kenya office is located in Nairobi. We have over 50 professional employees in Kenya who are trained in providing independent audit, assurance and advisory services.

Services offered by Mazars: We specialize in audit, tax and advisory services across a range of markets and sectors. We serve a wide cross-section of clients in areas such as the financial, hospitality, manufacturing, co-operative societies, county government, parastatals, charitable and non-governmental organizations, sole proprietors, family companies and small & medium enterprises. We have also acted as a financial management agency for international donors in order to monitor the use of funds granted to various projects in the region. We provide outsourced accounting services and internal audit to a growing list of clients.

Vision: To be the leading provider of choice of customized professional business solutions in accounting, finance and consulting.

Partners: Owen Koimburi (managing partner); Alphonse Karungu; Charles Gathuto; Lucy Gichuki; and Evanson Ng’ang’a.

Contacts

The Green House, 3rd Floor, Ngong’ Road P. O. Box 61120 - 00200, Nairobi - Kenya Cell phone: + 254 722 440270, +254 734 440270 Telephone + 254 (020) 3861175/6/9 Email: contact@mazars.co.ke

Also in: Mombasa Kenya and Kigali Rwanda

22

BUSINESS DAILY | Thursday April 2, 2015

MARKET DATA Agro Commodities Market Early Morning wholesale commodity prices Date 01.04.2015 COMMODITY Unit Kg Nairobi Mombasa CEREAL Dry Maize Bag 90 2500 2800 Green Maize Ext Bag 115 3600 5600 Finger Millet Bag 90 7300 7900 Sorghum Bag 90 4000 2700 Wheat Bag 90 LEGUMES Beans Canadian Bag 90 6300 Beans Rosecoco Bag 90 6500 6800 Beans Mwitemania Bag 90 6300 6500 Mwezi Moja Bag 90 6300 Dolichos (Njahi) Bag 90 6800 7650 Green Gram Bag 90 11500 9900 Cowpeas Bag 90 7400 6300 Fresh Peas Bag 51 3600 5000 Groundnuts Bag 110 13000 14080 ROOTS & TUBERS Red Irish Potatoes Bag 50 2300 2400 White Irish Potatoes Bag 50 2400 2700 Cassava Fresh Bag 99 2000 1600 Sweet Potatoes Bag 98 3400 3100 VEGETABLES Cabbages Ext Bag 126 2800 3800 Cooking Bananas Med Bunch 22 530 800 Carrots Ext Bag 138 3600 6000 Tomatoes Lg Box 64 5500 5000 Onions Dry net 13 900 1000 Kales Bag 50 3000 3800 Spring Onions Bag 142 2200 3800 Chillies Bag 38 3400 3800 Cucumber Bag 50 2300 1500 Capsicums Bag 50 3000 2000 Brinjals Bag 44 2000 2000 Cauliflower crate 39 2800 5070 Lettuce Bag 51 2300 2500 FRUITS Passion Fruits Bag 57 4500 5000 Oranges Bag 93 3400 3000 Lemons Bag 95 2600 4000 Mangoes Local Bag 126 2700 Mangoes Ngowe Sm Basket 25 1100 1400 Ripe Bananas Med Bunch 14 640 450 Limes net 13 900 1000 Pineapples Dozen 13 720 900 Pawpaw Lg Box 54 2000 900 Avocado Bag 90 2600 3000 OTHERS Eggs Tray 300 330 300

Commodities Kisumu

Eldoret

Embu

3400 2500 7200 3600

2200 2500 7200 5400 3400

2500 3400 5600 3600 4800

8000 7600

8200 2500

7200 7200 6200 11250 11700 6300 2040 12600

2500 2500 2100 2500

2000 1800

2700 300 5000 3500 1040 3500 1500 1400

2400 900 2000 3000 1400 1800 780

2600 1350

1700

G≥owth Hanoi Vegetables placed on the ground for sale at a village’s afternoon market on the outskirts of Hanoi. Local official media have reported that China’s GDP growth rate reached 6.03 per cent for the first quarter of 2015.

6600 6800 6200 7400 7500 6630

2200 2200 1900 2600 7560 300 7000 2400 1050 1250

AFP

3800 3000 3000

2500 1760

3900 5600 3000 3000 1600 2500 1800 300

3700 3400

7410 4000

2400 700 600

800 300 350

600 1200 1600

910 3780 2100

1200 1620 2600

360

Global Commodity Prices Effective date: 1st APRIL 2015

300

OPEN 1,338.16 626.32 935.61 852.07 948.52 83.56 352.68 610.73 887.56 814.09 1,143.67 1,300.35 1,325.21 1,066.75 866.13 929.81 606.36 942.36 961.03 929.14 767.08 488.59 442.30 478.90 1,238.07 1,305.34 802.56 2,848.82 1,018.39 2,086.46 1,075.41 918.57 1,083.28 1,041.78 1,072.23 1,073.10 1,087.57 758.90 750.63 976.71 950.62 1,207.64 1,517.82 1,549.27 1,191.48 1,073.59 1,064.35 398.81 167.72 1,061.21 927.01 928.08 899.88 1,133.91

HIGH 1,338.16 626.32 935.61 852.07 948.52 83.56 352.68 610.73 887.56 814.09 1,143.67 1,300.35 1,325.21 1,066.75 866.13 929.81 606.36 942.36 961.03 929.14 767.08 488.59 442.30 478.90 1,238.07 1,305.34 802.56 2,848.82 1,018.39 2,086.46 1,075.41 918.57 1,083.28 1,041.78 1,072.23 1,073.10 1,087.57 758.90 750.63 976.71 950.62 1,207.64 1,517.82 1,549.27 1,191.48 1,073.59 1,064.35 398.81 167.72 1,061.21 927.01 928.08 899.88 1,133.91

CURRENCY LAST NET CHNG

LOW 1,338.16 626.32 935.61 852.07 948.52 83.56 352.68 610.73 887.56 814.09 1,143.67 1,300.35 1,325.21 1,066.75 866.13 929.81 606.36 942.36 961.03 929.14 767.08 488.59 442.30 478.90 1,238.07 1,305.34 802.56 2,848.82 1,018.39 2,086.46 1,075.41 918.57 1,083.28 1,041.78 1,072.23 1,073.10 1,087.57 758.90 750.63 976.71 950.62 1,207.64 1,517.82 1,549.27 1,191.48 1,073.59 1,064.35 398.81 167.72 1,061.21 927.01 928.08 899.88 1,133.91

CLOSE 1,340.92 622.65 949.97 858.47 965.36 83.56 352.06 602.65 890.94 817.47 1,146.58 1,309.63 1,334.68 1,074.19 860.35 925.13 596.53 938.54 956.86 926.94 772.28 492.99 445.20 482.05 1,251.43 1,320.11 806.31 2,851.07 1,019.36 2,087.98 1,085.03 930.01 1,094.14 1,045.46 1,085.38 1,087.69 1,093.49 756.16 746.85 972.51 945.42 1,209.84 1,513.08 1,546.16 1,184.80 1,085.60 1,077.37 405.52 171.21 1,075.61 934.77 935.83 907.48 1,154.57

CURRENCY

DAILY YIELD EFFECTIVE ANNUAL RATE

OLD MUTUAL

SH

7.40%

7.66%

BRITISH AMERICAN

SH

10.97%

11.60%

CBA

SH

8.91%

9.26%

SUGAR NO5

USD

357.90

2.50

UAP

SH

10.72%

11.32%

COFFEE

USD

173.00

-3.00

ICEA

SH

10.97%

11.60%

COCOA

USD

2700.00

1.00

AMANA

SH

GENCAP HELA

SH

11.52%

12.03%

PAN AFRICA PESA+

SH

10.14%

10.67%

STANLIB

SH

9.98%

10.45%

RUBBER

MSCI Emerging Markets Sector Indices PCT.CHNG -0.21% 0.59% -1.51% -0.75% -1.74% 0.00% 0.18% 1.34% -0.38% -0.41% -0.25% -0.71% -0.71% -0.69% 0.67% 0.51% 1.65% 0.41% 0.44% 0.24% -0.67% -0.89% -0.65% -0.65% -1.07% -1.12% -0.47% -0.08% -0.09% -0.07% -0.89% -1.23% -0.99% -0.35% -1.21% -1.34% -0.54% 0.36% 0.51% 0.43% 0.55% -0.18% 0.31% 0.20% 0.56% -1.11% -1.21% -1.66% -2.04% -1.34% -0.83% -0.83% -0.84% -1.79%

MONEY MARKET FUND

SOFTS

SOURCE: STATE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. EMAIL MARKETINFO@KILIMO.GO.KE

NAME LAST NET.CHNG AC ASIA XJP 1,338.16 -2.76 BRIC IC 626.32 3.66 BELGIUM IC DAILY 935.61 -14.35 BELGIUM 852.07 -6.41 BELGIUM MID CAP 948.52 -16.84 BAHRAIN IC 83.56 0.00 BRAZIL IC DAILY 352.68 0.62 BRAZIL MID CAP 610.73 8.09 CANADA IC 887.56 -3.38 CANADA CAP 814.09 -3.37 CANADA MID CAP 1,143.67 -2.92 SWITZERLAND IC 1,300.35 -9.28 SWITZERLAND LRCP 1,325.21 -9.48 SWIZ 1,066.75 -7.44 CHILE IC 866.13 5.78 CHILE LARGE CAP 929.81 4.68 CHILE MID CAP IC 606.36 9.84 CHINA IC 942.36 3.82 CHINA LARGE CAP 961.03 4.17 CHINA MID CAP IC 929.14 2.19 COLOMBIA IC 767.08 -5.20 COLOMBIA CAP 488.59 -4.40 CZECH REPUBL 442.30 -2.91 CZECH REPUB LRCP 478.90 -3.15 1,238.07 -13.37 GERMANY IC GERMANY LARGE CP 1,305.34 -14.77 GERMANY MID CAP 802.56 -3.75 DENMARK IC 2,848.82 -2.25 DENMARK LARGE CP 1,018.39 -0.97 DENMARK MID CAP 2,086.46 -1.52 EASEA IC 1,075.41 -9.61 EASEA IC 918.57 -11.44 EASEA LARGE CAP 1,083.28 -10.86 EASEA MID CAP IC 1,041.78 -3.68 1,072.23 -13.15 EU IC EU LARGE CAP IC 1,073.10 -14.59 EU MID CAP IC 1,087.57 -5.92 EM EMEA IC 758.90 2.74 EM EMEA LARGE CP 750.63 3.78 EM EM ISLAMIC 976.71 4.20 5.21 EMERGING MARKET 950.62 EM MDCP 1,207.64 -2.21 SPAIN IC 1,517.82 4.74 SPAIN LARGE CAP 1,549.27 3.11 SPAIN MID CAP IC 1,191.48 6.67 -12.01 EUROPE X GERMANY 1,073.59 EURO EX GERMANY 1,064.35 -13.02 FINLAND IC 398.81 -6.71 FINLAND LARGE CP 167.72 -3.49 FINLAND MID CAP 1,061.21 -14.39 FRANCE IC 927.01 -7.76 FRANCE CAP 928.08 -7.75 FRANCE MID CAP 899.88 -7.60 UNITED KINGDOM 1,133.91 -20.66

Effective date: 31st March 2015

AGRO COMMODITIES COMMODITY

Unit Trusts

JPY

206.00

-1.00

FROZEN OJ CON1 USC

123.65

-5.80

COTTON NO2

62.95

-0.15

USC

FIXED INCOME FUND

GRAINS

GENCAP HAZINA

CURRENCY

BUY

SELL

SH

114.15

110.16

USD

101.05

101.05

CORN

USC

378.50

2.25

NABO AFRICA

MAIZE EUR

EUR

155.75

1.25

BALANCED FUND

WHEAT

USC

514.75

3.00

OLD MUTUAL / TOBOA

SH

166.79

177.60

0.05

BRITISH AMERICAN

SH

196.37

202.11

BA MANAGED RETIREMENT

SH

141.02

142.21

AMANA

SH

ROUGH RICE

USD

10.92

OILSEEDS SOY BEANS

USC

978.25

5.00

SOY BEAN OIL

USC

30.49

0.10

CANOLA

CAD

456.70

PALM OIL

MYR

22.64

ICEA

SH

146.58

154.29

GENCAP ENEZA

SH

134.18

129.48

1.40

UAP

SH

11.20

11.76

-8.00

PAN AFRICA CHAMA+

SH

10.71

11.04

SH

132.28

132.28

USD

112.69

112.69

STANLIB NABO AFRICA

METALS & MINING SYMBOL CURRENCY 100 OZ GOLD

EQUITY FUND LAST

NET CHG

USD

1181.80

-1.30

OLD MUTUAL

SH

419.43

449.41

OLD MUTUAL EAST AFRICA FUND

SH

162.99

172.50

AMANA

SH 224.24

SILVER

JPY

64.00

-1.00

BRITISH AMERICAN

SH

217.33

HG COPPER

USC

2.75

0.00

CBA

SH

172.41

172.41

PLATINUM

JPY

4392.00

-5.00

ICEA

SH

156.03

164.24

ALUMINIUM

CNY

13380.00

-5.00

GENCAP HISA

SH

140.53

135.61

UAP

SH

11.16

11.72

STANLIB

SH

193.47

193.47

USD

102.35

102.35

OIL& GAS

NABO AFRICA BOND FUND

SYMBOL

CURRENCY

LAST

NET CHG

OLD MUTUAL BOND FUND

SH

101.47

103.88

BRITISH AMERICAN

SH

137.58

140.38

0.00

ICEA

SH

98.06

99.05

0.08

UAP

SH

10.78

10.78

STANLIB FUND B1

SH

100.44

100.44

STANLIB FUND A

SH

99.77

99.77

PAN AFRICA PATA+

SH

10.26

10.58

SH

119.29

113.33

LIGHT CRUDE

USD

47.28

-0.32

NO 2 HT OIL

USD

1.70

BRENT CRUDE

USD

55.19

GAS OIL

USD

522.75

-3.75

NATURAL GAS

USD

2.65

0.01

KEROSINE

JPY

53300.00

170.00

SHARIAH COMPLIANT GENCAP IMAN

Thursday April 2, 2015 | BUSINESS DAILY

23

MARKETDATA DATA MARKET

Solid second qua≥te≥ sta≥t fo≥ Eu≥opean stocks, dolla≥ European stocks and the dollar made solid starts to the second quarter yesterday as signs of a recovery in the euro zone and expectations of more good US news cheered investors after their blowout last few months.

Europe’s benchmark FTSEurofirst 300 recovered strongly after an early wobble to put London’s FTSE and Germany’s DAX up 1.1, 1 and 1.5 per cent after euro zone manufacturing data was revised higher.

Wall Street ESc1 was expected to see a more subdued start when it resumes later but the dollar was back on the front foot with traders eyeing ISM manufacturing and ADP jobs data for the latest readout on the health of the US economy. Euro zone bonds also raemained in favour as the European Central Bank pushed on with its 1 trillion euro buying plan, while oil remained under pressure amid hopes of an Iran nuclear deal that is expected to loosen sanctions on the OPEC member.

Currency markets stayed mostly in recent ranges after a tumultuous few months.

After a dip in Asia, the dollar edged back up to 120.15 versus the yen and to $1.0750 per euro after the euro made its worst ever start to a year in Q1.

“I would be surprised if we had a similar quarter again considering the performances of the dollar and the euro over the last few quarters,” said Derek Halpenny, European head of global markets research at Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi in London.

“With no policy (rate increase) announcement likely in the second quarter from the Federal Reserve, that reduces the scope for significant moves...

Also the bulk of global easing that has helped fuel the dollar is probably behind us now.”

More signs that the ECB’s stimulus programme is bearing fruit came as euro zone manufacturing activity accelerated faster than previously thought last month to hit a 10-month high.

Data from China was less robust, bolstering the view that Beijing has to provide more stimulus to keep growth on track, with some analysts eyeing moves to directly push down the yuan’s value.

The HSBC/Markit China Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) came in at 49.6, slightly higher than a preliminary “flash” reading of 49.2 but still below the 50-mark separating contraction from expansion.

An employment subindex contracted for a 17th straight month, falling to its lowest since August 2014. “The latest data indicate that domestic and foreign demand remains subdued amid weaker market conditions,” said Annabel Fiddes, an economist at Markit.

-REUTERS

ACTIVE COUNTERS Scan Group

Williamson Tea 280.00 -2.44%

Jul ‘14

Mar‘15 81.36 3.44 2.50%

Earnings per share Price to earnings ratio (p/e) Dividend Yield

Kakuzi Uchumi Kenya

46.00 0.55%

Jul ‘14

Mar‘15 2.70 17.04 0.87%

Earnings per share Price to earnings ratio (p/e) Dividend Yield

EABL Eaagards

280.0018.80 Kenya Kenya 0.00% 2.17%

Kenya

Jul ‘14

Kenya

Mar‘15

244.00 32.25 7.49% 0.00%

Jul ‘14

Mar‘15

8.171.35 Earnings Earnings share perper share 13.93 34.27 Price to earnings ratio (p/e) Price to earnings ratio (p/e) 1.60% 1.34%

Earnings share Earnings perper share Price to earnings ratio (p/e) Price to earnings ratio (p/e) Dividend Yield Dividend Yield

Dividend Yield Dividend Yield

Jubilee

Limuru Kenya

Jul ‘14

Mar‘15 23.80 47.23 0.67%

Earnings per share Price to earnings ratio (p/e) Dividend Yield

CLonghorn &G Kenya

30.25 8.70 -3.20% 0.58%

Jul ‘14

USE All Share

July ‘14

Mar‘15

July ‘14

Mar‘15

Kenya Kenya

Jul ‘14

Mar‘15

44.50 -1.11%

11.75 798.00 0.00% -0.13%

Jul ‘14

July ‘14

Mar‘15 3.65 12.19 1.69%

Earnings per share Price to earnings ratio (p/e) Dividend Yield

Mumias KPLC Kenya

Mar‘15

14.452.40 0.35% -2.04%

Jul ‘14

Mar‘15

-6.35 per share 42.55 Earnings Earnings per share -1.85 to earnings ratioratio (p/e)(p/e) to earnings 18.75 PricePrice 0.00% YieldYield Dividend 5.33% Dividend

2.23 -1.77 6.48 -1.36 0.00% 0.00%

RSE All Share Rwanda

137.29 0.00%

34,393.05 8.31%

2,619.83 0.91%

July ‘14

48.00 11.85 1.49%

Nigeria

Tanzania

2,084.17 0.37%

52,108.94 -0.14%

BAT Airways Kenya

Mar‘15

NGSE All share

DSE All Share

Uganda

South Africa

Earnings per share Price to earnings ratio (p/e) Dividend Yield

per share 1.627.48 Earnings Earnings per share Price to earnings ratio (p/e) 5.374.04 Price to earnings ratio (p/e) Yield 2.64% Dividend Dividend Yield 22.99%

Tracking the markets: Benchmark Index (Latest Data) Africa JSE All Share Index

Jul ‘14

Mar‘15

Earningsper pershare share -1.30 8.82 Earnings Pricetotoearnings earningsratio ratio(p/e) (p/e) -24.81 27.66 Price DividendYield Yield 0.00% 2.25% Dividend

Unga 569.00 2.52%

1124.00 0.00%

Mar‘15

July ‘14

Mar‘15

World DJ Industrial

Xetra Dax

July ‘14

Mar‘15

July ‘14

Mar‘15

25,082.75 0.73%

July ‘14

Sensex

Tokyo

Hongkong

12,091.06 1.04%

17,776.12 -1.11%

Nikkei

HangSeng

Frankfurt

New York

Mar‘15

Mumbai 19,034.84 -0.90%

July ‘14

Mar‘15

28,256.06 1.07%

July ‘14

Mar‘15

24

BUSINESS DAILY | Thursday April 2, 2015

MARKET DATA African Indices

Nairobi Stocks

NAME

NSE 20 Share Index

5,240.53 -0.15%

Nairobi

LOCATION

LAST

KENYA

5,240.53

-7.63

NSE 20 - SHR IDX LUSE ALL SHARE INDEX

NET.CHNG

PCT.CHNG

OPEN

-0.15%

HIGH

5,240.53

LOW

5,240.53

CLOSE

5,240.53

5,248.16

ZAMBIA

6,136.93

37.28

0.61%

6,103.71

6,136.93

6,103.71

6,099.65

SOUTH AFRICA

52,108.94

-73.01

-0.14%

52,023.78

52,236.20

51,921.30

52,181.95

UGANDA

2,084.17

7.78

0.37%

2,076.39

2,076.39

2,076.39

2,076.39

ZIMBABWE

156.01

-2.21

-1.40%

158.22

158.22

158.22

158.22

-59.42

-0.27%

21,830.96

21,846.73

21,764.92

21,833.19

-2.96

-0.02%

15,364.50

15,364.50

15,364.50

15,364.50

5,600.00

JSE ALL SHARE INDEX

5,500.00

ALSIUG

5,400.00

ZSE INDUSTRIAL

5,300.00

CFG INDEX

MOROCCO

21,773.77

5,200.00

MALAWI ALL SHR

MALAWI

15,361.54

5,100.00

DSE ALL SHR IDX

TANZANIA

2,619.83

23.57

0.91%

2,596.26

2,596.26

2,596.26

2,596.26

5,000.00

NSE ALL SHARE/D

NIGERIA

34,393.05

2,639.90

8.31%

31,753.15

34,423.74

31,753.15

31,753.15

4,900.00

EGX 30 IDX/D

4,800.00

TUN MAIN INDEX July ‘14

March ‘15

RSE ALLSHARE IND

175.22 0.06%

Nairobi

182.00 177.00 172.00 167.00 162.00 157.00 152.00 147.00 July ‘14

March ‘15

FTSE Pan African Index

1,234.76 0.33%

Nairobi 1500.00 1450.00 1400.00 1350.00 1300.00 1250.00 1200.00 1150.00 July ‘14

March ‘15

Active Active Counters Counters Last fri

Prev fri

%

Price

Price

Change

Total Shares Traded

Safaricom

17.00

17.05

-0.29%

23,447,000

Equity

52.00

52.00

0.00%

7,471,100

Barclays

16.45

16.40

0.30%

6,378,700

KCB

60.50

60.50

0.00%

3,913,800

Centum Invest.

63.00

63.50

-0.79%

3,570,900

Gainers Last fri Counter

Price

Prev fri

Net

Price

Change

% Chng

Car & Gen

49.50

46.50

3.00

6.45%

Transcentury

18.25

17.45

0.80

4.58%

Jubilee

569.00

555.00

14.00

2.52%

KenGen

10.05

9.85

0.20

2.03%

316.00

311.00

5.00

1.61%

Last fri Price

Prev fri price

Net Change

EABL

Losers Counter

Uchumi

9,099.33

-35.45

-0.39%

9,133.54

9,146.41

9,099.33

9,134.78

5,315.37

2.64

0.05%

5,306.34

5,327.46

5,306.34

5,312.73

RWANDA

137.29

0.00

0.00%

137.29

137.29

137.29

137.29

Daily Share Report

All Share Index (NASI)

Counter

EGYPT TUNISIA

% Chng

10.10

10.75

-0.65

-6.05%

Pan Africa

121.00

126.00

-5.00

-3.97%

Williamson Tea

280.00

287.00

-7.00

-2.44%

KenolKobil

9.25

9.45

-0.20

-2.12%

Mumias

2.40

2.45

-0.05

-2.04%

MARKET UPDATES

52 WK HIGH

52 WK LOW

AGRICULTURAL 100.00 26.00 EAAGADS 346.00 110.00 KAKUZI 180.00 120.00 KAPCHORUA TEA 1185.00 620.00 LIMURU TEA 27.50 27.50 REA VIPINGO 18.50 11.50 SASINI 319.00 240.00 WILLIAMSON TEA AUTOMOBILES & ACCESSORIES 62.00 31.00 CAR & GEN 13.60 8.00 MARSHALLS 9.40 5.40 SAMEER BANKING 18.45 15.05 BARCLAYS 155.00 104.00 CFC STANBIC 280.00 216.00 DTBK 63.00 31.00 EQUITY 55.00 33.25 HF 147.00 120.00 I&M HOLDINGS 64.50 42.25 KCB 34.00 22.25 NBK 85.00 55.00 NIC BANK 357.00 290.00 STAN. CHART. 25.00 17.10 CO-OP BANK COMMERCIAL 8.50 4.15 EXPRESS (K) 20.25 20.25 HUTCHINGS BIEMER 13.50 7.60 KQ 30.75 7.90 LONGHORN PUBLISHERS 325.00 225.00 NATION MEDIA 247.00 40.00 SCANGROUP 47.50 26.25 STANDARD GRP 49.50 32.00 TPS EA 15.60 8.00 UCHUMI CONSTRUCTION & ALLIED 95.00 76.00 ARM CEMENT LTD 206.00 135.00 BAMBURI 165.00 83.00 CROWN BERGER 17.00 13.50 EA CABLES 110.00 51.00 EAPC ENERGY & PETROLEUM 13.15 8.70 KENGEN 10.50 7.90 KENOLKOBIL 18.50 12.85 KENYA POWER 32.00 22.00 TOTAL 23.00 13.00 UMEME INSURANCE 40.00 16.40 BRITISH AMERICAN 12.40 7.50 CIC INSURANCE 575.00 301.00 JUBILEE 21.00 16.00 KENYA RE 26.00 15.10 LIBERTY KENYA 142.00 101.00 PAN AFRICA INVESTMENT 84.50 35.00 CENTUM INVEST. 10.85 2.50 OLYMPIA 30.00 17.00 TRANSCENTURY INVESTMENT SERVICES 15.00 NAIROBI SECURITIES EXCHG 28.00 MANUFACTURING & ALLIED 11.10 11.10 A. BAUMANN 165.00 123.00 BOC GASES 1050.00 521.00 BAT KENYA 37.00 19.60 CARBACID 355.00 250.00 EABL 5.35 2.65 EVEREADY EA 192.00 4.40 K. ORCHARDS 3.85 1.35 MUMIAS 56.50 22.00 UNGA TELECOMMUNICATION & TECHNOLOGY SAFARICOM 17.50 11.75 GROWTH AND ENTERPRISE MARKET SEGMENT ATLAS DEVELOPMENT 13.75 11.00 8.00 FLAME TREE GROUP HOLDINGS 14.00 5.80 3.00 HOME AFRICA 1500.00 KURWITU VENTURES LTD 1500.00

YTD %

VWA LAST PRICE

VWA PREV PRICE

DAILY PRICE CHANGE

DAILY TRADED SHARES

SHARES ISSUED

EPS LATEST 12MNTH

P/E TRAILING

PBV TRAILING

DPS LATEST 12MNTH

TOTAL DIVIDEND YIELD

-23.21% 55.56% -5.11% 45.78% 0.00% 11.67% 15.73%

32.25 280.00 130.00 1124.00 27.50 14.35 280.00

32.25 280.00 130.00 1124.00 27.50 14.35 287.00

0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% -2.44%

900 8,700

32,157,000 19,599,999 3,912,000 1,200,000 60,000,000 228,055,500 8,756,320

1,037,063,250.0 5,487,999,720.0 508,560,000.0 1,348,800,000.0 1,650,000,000.0 3,272,596,425.0 2,451,769,600.0

-1.30 8.17 32.21 23.80 5.85 0.54 81.36

-24.81 34.27 4.04 47.23 4.70 26.57 3.44

2.58 1.89 0.37 5.47 0.74 0.52 0.39

0.00 3.75 5.00 7.50 0.00 0.25 7.00

0.00% 1.34% 3.85% 0.67% 0.00% 1.74% 2.50%

-13.89% 22.45% -7.50%

49.50 12.00 5.50

46.50 12.00 5.55

6.45% 0.00% -0.90%

700 34,400

40,103,308 14,393,106 278,342,393

1,985,113,746.0 172,717,272.0 1,530,883,161.5

6.57 -11.90 -0.24

7.53 -1.01 -22.92

0.95 0.44 0.66

0.60 0.00 0.00

1.21% 0.00% 0.00%

-1.80% 0.81% 2.98% 4.00% -18.58% 3.25% 6.14% -2.02% 3.48% 2.69% 6.25%

16.45 126.00 242.00 52.00 37.75 127.00 60.50 24.00 59.50 345.00 21.25

16.40 125.00 242.00 52.00 37.25 127.00 60.50 24.25 59.50 344.00 21.25

0.30% 0.80% 0.00% 0.00% 1.34% 0.00% 0.00% -1.03% 0.00% 0.29% 0.00%

6,378,700 400 437,300 7,471,100 11,600 500 3,913,800 9,500 70,100 72,100 853,500

5,431,536,000 395,321,638 242,110,105 3,702,777,020 235,750,000 392,362,039 2,984,227,692 280,000,000 639,945,603 309,159,514 4,889,316,295

89,348,767,200.0 49,810,526,388.0 58,590,645,410.0 192,544,405,040.0 8,899,562,500.0 49,829,978,953.0 180,545,775,366.0 6,720,000,000.0 38,076,763,378.5 106,660,032,330.0 103,897,971,268.8

1.54 14.38 21.92 4.55 4.21 13.56 5.63 3.11 7.07 33.21 1.64

10.68 8.76 11.04 11.43 8.97 9.37 10.75 7.72 8.42 10.39 12.96

2.76 2.16 2.54 3.74 1.46 2.27 2.82 0.55 1.83 2.95 2.42

1.00 6.15 2.40 1.80 1.50 1.90 2.00 0.00 1.00 17.00 0.50

6.08% 4.88% 0.99% 3.46% 3.97% 1.50% 3.31% 0.00% 1.68% 4.93% 2.35%

-9.68% 0.00% -5.75% -6.49% -5.70% 1.10% 8.63% -9.46% 6.97%

5.60 20.25 8.10 8.70 245.00 46.00 38.25 33.75 10.10

5.60 20.25 8.20 8.65 248.00 45.75 37.75 33.50 10.75

0.00% 0.00% -1.22% 0.58% -1.21% 0.55% 1.32% 0.75% -6.05%

1,100 175,300 80,600 71,100 1,900 300 500 6,900

35,403,790 360,000 1,496,469,035 243,750,000 188,542,286 378,865,102 81,731,808 182,174,108 364,959,616

198,261,224.0 7,290,000.0 12,121,399,183.5 2,120,625,000.0 46,192,860,070.0 17,427,794,692.0 3,126,241,656.0 6,148,376,145.0 3,686,092,121.6

0.01 -18.34 -2.25 1.62 13.10 2.70 2.57 3.45 1.45

560.00 -1.10 -3.60 5.37 18.70 17.04 14.88 9.78 6.97

1.00 3.88 1.17 5.65 2.13 1.72 0.56 0.92

0.00 0.00 0.00 2.00 10.00 0.40 0.50 1.35 0.30

0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 22.99% 4.08% 0.87% 1.31% 4.00% 2.97%

-6.98% 14.39% 7.21% -2.47% 1.72%

78.50 160.00 119.00 16.00 59.00

80.00 159.00 119.00 15.80 59.00

-1.88% 0.63% 0.00% 1.27% 0.00%

30,000 23,200 3,400 -

495,275,000 362,959,275 23,727,000 253,125,000 90,000,000

38,879,087,500.0 58,073,484,000.0 2,823,513,000.0 4,050,000,000.0 5,310,000,000.0

3.01 9.80 9.01 1.37 -4.30

26.08 16.33 13.21 11.68 -13.72

4.79 2.01 2.07 1.68 1.10

0.60 12.00 1.75 1.00 0.00

0.76% 7.50% 1.47% 6.25% 0.00%

-4.37% 8.62% 25.26% 9.38% -14.29%

10.05 9.25 17.85 26.25 18.00

9.85 9.45 18.10 26.25 18.00

2.03% -2.12% -1.38% 0.00% 0.00%

874,300 717,100 133,100 5,600 -

2,198,361,456 1,471,761,200 1,951,467,045 175,028,706 1,623,878,005

22,093,532,632.8 13,613,791,100.0 34,833,686,753.3 4,594,503,532.5 29,229,804,090.0

1.29 0.74 3.31 2.26 1.34

7.79 12.50 5.39 11.62 13.43

0.32 2.04 0.80 0.90 3.19

0.40 0.20 0.50 0.70 0.73

3.98% 2.16% 2.80% 2.67% 4.06%

-9.24% 2.60% 23.33% 8.50% 7.53% 5.00%

27.00 9.85 569.00 18.50 25.00 121.00

27.00 9.85 555.00 18.50 25.00 126.00

0.00% 0.00% 2.52% 0.00% 0.00% -3.97%

386,300 258,200 13,500 739,800 21,000 14,300

1,938,415,838 2,615,538,528 59,895,000 699,949,068 535,707,499 96,000,000

52,337,227,626.0 25,763,054,500.8 34,080,255,000.0 12,949,057,758.0 13,392,687,475.0 11,616,000,000.0

1.47 0.43 48.00 4.29 2.15 9.07

18.37 22.91 11.85 4.31 11.63 13.34

3.02 3.19 3.19 0.72 2.53 3.48

0.30 0.10 8.50 0.70 1.00 0.00

1.11% 1.02% 1.49% 3.78% 4.00% 0.00%

4.10% 15.38% -9.82%

63.00 5.90 18.25

63.50 6.00 17.45

-0.79% -1.67% 4.58%

3,570,900 2,700 5,600

665,441,775 40,000,000 280,284,476

41,922,831,825.0 236,000,000.0 5,115,191,687.0

4.54 0.38 1.06

13.88 15.53 17.22

2.07 0.30 0.96

0.00 0.00 0.40

0.00% 0.00% 2.19%

19.90

19.85

0.25%

1,033,600

194,625,000

3,873,037,500.0

1.35

14.74

5.31

0.38

1.91%

0.00% 8.00% -12.00% 0.00% 0.97% 6.76% 1.82% 25.64% 13.21%

11.10 135.00 798.00 21.75 316.00 3.90 112.00 2.40 44.50

11.10 135.00 799.00 21.75 311.00 3.95 112.00 2.45 45.00

0.00% 0.00% -0.13% 0.00% 1.61% -1.27% 0.00% -2.04% -1.11%

400 24,400 12,800 284,300 3,700 781,800 100

3,840,066 19,525,446 100,000,000 254,851,988 790,774,356 210,000,000 12,868,124 1,530,000,000 75,708,873

42,624,732.6 2,635,935,210.0 79,800,000,000.0 5,543,030,739.0 249,884,696,496.0 819,000,000.0 1,441,229,888.0 3,672,000,000.0 3,369,044,848.5

-2.02 10.38 42.55 1.93 8.21 -0.85 0.15 -1.77 3.65

-5.50 13.01 18.75 11.27 38.49 -4.59 746.67 -1.36 12.19

1.81 10.54 3.35 9.15 2.53 589.47 0.34 0.72

0.00 5.20 42.50 0.30 5.50 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.75

0.00% 3.85% 5.33% 1.38% 1.74% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 1.69%

21.35%

17.00

17.05

-0.29%

23,447,000

40,065,428,000

681,112,276,000.0

0.57

29.82

8.50

0.47

2.76%

-21.95% -

11.40 9.20 3.20 1500.00

11.50 9.35 3.20 1500.00

-0.87% -1.60% 0.00% 0.00%

200 52,600 834,900 -

433,063,193 161,866,804 405,255,320 102,272

4,936,920,400.2 1,489,174,596.8 1,296,817,024.0 153,408,000.0

-0.04 0.92 0.05 -62.40

-285.00 10.00 64.00 -24.04

0.00 0.92 0.00 0.00

0.00% 10.01% 0.00% 0.00%

MKT CAP. KSHS

-

TO RECEIVE NATIONMOBILE ALERTS ON YOUR CELLPHONE, SMS THE STOCK YOU WANT, E.G. STOCKS KENGEN, TO 20667.

6667. EACH EACHALERT ALERTCOSTS COSTSSH5 SH5ABOVE ABOVENORMAL NORMALRATES. RATES.

Thursday April 2, 2015 | BUSINESS DAILY

MARKET DATA

MARKET DATA Equities & Bonds Kenya Treasury and Infrastructure Bonds

Share Price Performance Scorecard SCORECARD AS AT 1ST APRIL 2015 NAME A BAUMANN ATLAS DEVPNT & SPPRT SERV ATHI RIVER MINING BAMBURI BARCLAYS KEN BAT KENYA BOC KENYA BRITISH AMERICAN CAR & GENERAL CARBACID INV CENTUM INV CFC STANBIC BANK CIC INSURANCE CO-OP BANK CROWN BERGER DIAMOND KEN EA CABLES EA PORT CEM EAAGADS EA AFR BREW EQUITY BANK EVEREADY EA EXPRESS KEN FLAME TREE HLDNGS G WILLIAMSON HUTCHINGS BIEMER HOME AFRICA LIMITED HOUSING FIN I&M HOLDING JUBILEE HLDS KAKUZI KAPCHORUA KEN ORCHARDS KENGEN KENYA AIRWAYS KENYA COM BK KENOLKOBIL KENYA POWER KENYA RE KURWITU LIBERTY HOLDINGS LIMURU TEA LONGHORN MARSHALL MUMIAS SUGAR NAIROBI SECURITIES NATION MEDIA NATL BANK KEN NIC BANK OLYMPIA CAPITAL PAN AFR INS REA VIPINGO SAFARICOM SAMEER AFRICA SASINI SCANGROUP STANDARD GRP STD CHART KEN TOTAL KENYA TPS (EA) TRANSCENTURY UCHUMI SUPER UNGA GROUP

PREVIOUS 11.10 11.50 80.00 159.00 16.40 799.00 135.00 27.00 46.50 21.75 63.50 125.00 9.85 21.25 119.00 242.00 15.80 59.00 32.25 311.00 52.00 3.95 5.60 9.35 287.00 20.25 3.20 37.25 127.00 555.00 280.00 130.00 112.00 9.85 8.20 60.50 9.45 18.10 18.50 1500.00 25.00 1124.00 8.65 12.00 2.45 19.85 248.00 24.25 59.50 6.00 126.00 27.50 17.05 5.55 14.35 45.75 37.75 344.00 26.25 33.50 17.45 10.75 45.00

CLOSE 11.10 11.40 78.50 160.00 16.45 798.00 135.00 27.00 49.50 21.75 63.00 126.00 9.85 21.25 119.00 242.00 16.00 59.00 32.25 316.00 52.00 3.90 5.60 9.20 280.00 20.25 3.20 37.75 127.00 569.00 280.00 130.00 112.00 10.05 8.10 60.50 9.25 17.85 18.50 1500.00 25.00 1124.00 8.70 12.00 2.40 19.90 245.00 24.00 59.50 5.90 121.00 27.50 17.00 5.50 14.35 46.00 38.25 345.00 26.25 33.75 18.25 10.10 44.50

% 1D 0.00 -0.87 -1.88 0.63 0.30 -0.13 0.00 0.00 6.45 0.00 -0.79 0.80 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 1.27 0.00 0.00 1.61 0.00 -1.27 0.00 -1.60 -2.44 0.00 0.00 1.34 0.00 2.52 0.00 0.00 0.00 2.03 -1.22 0.00 -2.12 -1.38 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.58 0.00 -2.04 0.25 -1.21 -1.03 0.00 -1.67 -3.97 0.00 -0.29 -0.90 0.00 0.55 1.32 0.29 0.00 0.75 4.58 -6.05 -1.11

% 5D 0.00 1.33 -5.99 0.00 -4.08 -1.60 3.85 2.86 8.79 7.41 5.88 0.80 2.07 2.41 0.85 -0.41 3.56 6.31 -12.84 -3.36 5.05 -2.50 -6.67 -4.17 7.28 0.00 1.59 -2.58 -0.78 -0.18 0.00 0.00 0.00 -7.37 -5.81 0.00 -7.96 -2.99 -2.63 0.00 1.01 0.00 0.58 2.56 2.13 3.65 -0.41 -4.00 -0.83 0.00 -5.47 0.00 5.59 -11.29 2.50 2.22 1.32 0.88 0.96 0.75 1.67 -6.48 3.49

% 1M 0.00 -0.44 -11.30 3.90 -4.64 -8.80 -10.00 -8.47 5.32 -13.00 5.88 -2.33 -12.05 -5.56 -20.67 -2.42 -0.93 -9.23 -21.82 2.27 -2.80 -13.33 -12.50 2.22 -6.67 0.00 -11.11 -3.21 0.79 5.18 -15.15 -7.80 -2.61 -16.60 -18.18 0.83 -7.96 2.29 0.00 0.00 2.04 0.90 -3.87 0.00 -14.29 0.51 -6.13 -4.95 -8.46 -5.60 0.83 0.00 7.59 -11.29 -6.51 -7.54 -14.53 -2.54 -8.70 -2.88 -1.08 -8.18 -6.81

% 3M 0.00 -5.39 -8.72 15.11 -1.50 -12.11 8.00 -9.24 -8.33 0.00 3.28 1.61 2.60 6.25 7.21 2.98 -1.23 1.72 -23.21 2.60 4.00 5.41 -9.68 12.20 12.90 0.00 -21.95 -17.49 3.25 26.44 55.56 -5.11 1.82 -2.43 -6.90 6.14 6.32 23.53 8.50 0.00 7.53 45.78 -5.95 22.45 23.08 -2.93 -6.84 -3.03 3.48 13.46 0.83 0.00 21.00 -8.33 11.67 1.66 10.07 2.99 9.38 -8.78 -5.68 0.50 11.95

% 6M 0.00 -8.72 9.59 -5.46 -9.73 -3.57 -22.30 5.32 -18.69 -5.26 -2.33 -13.60 -2.30 3.48 -12.00 3.90 -19.18 -19.38 13.26 2.97 -20.41 -29.56 -1.75 0.00 0.00 -21.35 -7.30 16.36 30.84 -3.70 40.00 -0.99 -12.43 3.42 0.00 27.05 1.93 16.28 27.73 -68.93 15.38 20.00 -13.48 -21.97 -9.43 -22.73 -7.09 -5.47 0.00 31.27 -19.12 0.35 10.18 10.87 0.00 0.96 -5.59 0.00 -2.42 9.88

% 1Y 0.00 -12.29 -20.40 1.23 30.61 -3.57 47.95 59.68 -33.59 73.79 18.87 0.00 6.25 41.67 7.56 0.31 -28.92 11.21 18.35 65.08 13.04 23.08 -3.45 0.00 0.00 7.86 0.00 86.56 139.32 -9.72 2334.78 -17.28 -37.45 31.52 -10.63 24.39 -0.54 52.44 81.29 -33.08 20.00 -29.41 -21.22 -15.04 -6.30 37.21 1.68 0.00 37.65 -20.86 -18.00 -5.15 28.57 10.93 10.53 -22.86 0.00 -30.58 97.78

Corporate Bonds APRIL 1ST 2015

25

BONDS LISTED AT THE NAIROBI SECURITIES EXCHANGE ISSUE MATURITY ISSUED VALUE COUPON DATE DATE IN MILLIONS (%)

ISSUE NO. CORPORATE BONDS CENTUM BOND SENIOR UNSECURED FIXED RATE AND EQUITY LINKED NOTES CTNB.BD.18.09.17/13.50 26-SEP-12 18-SEP-17 CTNB.BD.18.09.17/12.75 26-SEP-12 18-SEP-17 CONSOLIDATED BANK OF KENYA LTD MEDIUM TERM NOTE PROGRAMME CON.BD-FXD(SN)/2012/7YR 30-JUL-12 24-JUL-19 CON.BD-FXD(SBN)/2012/7YR 30-JUL-12 22-JUL-19 CON.BD-FR(SN)/2012/7YR 30-JUL-12 22-JUL-19 SHELTER AFRIQUE MEDIUM TERM NOTES FXD 2/2012/3YR 17-DEC-12 14-DEC-15 FXD 1/13/05YR 30-SEP-13 24-SEP-18 FR 1/13/05YR 30-SEP-13 24-SEP-18 BARCLAYS BANK MEDIUM TERM FLOATING RATE NOTES FXD (MTN)/2008/7YR 14-JUL-08 14-JUL-15 FR (MTN)/2008/7YR 14-JUL-08 14-JUL-15 MRM FR (MRM) 2008/8YR 27-OCT-08 17-OCT-16 FXD (MRM) 2008/8YR 27-OCT-08 17-OCT-16 CFC STANBIC BANK SENIOR & SUBORDINATED BOND ISSUE FR (CFC STANBIC) 2009/7YR 7-JUL-09 7-JUL-16 FXD (CFC STANBIC) 2009/7YR 7-JUL-09 7-JUL-16 KENGEN PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE BOND OFFER 2019 FXIB 1/2009/10YR 2-NOV-09 31-OCT-19 SAFARICOM LTD DOMESTIC MEDIUM TERM NOTE FR2 (SAFARICOM LTD) 2009/5YR 20-DEC-10 20-DEC-15 FXD2 (SAFARICOM LTD) 2009/5YR 20-DEC-10 20-DEC-15 FXD2 (SAFARICOM LTD) 2009/5YR 20-DEC-10 20-DEC-15 HOUSING FINANCE MEDIUM TERM NOTE FXD (HFCK) 02/2012/7YR 22-OCT-12 14-OCT-19 FXD (HFCK) 02/2012/7YR 22-OCT-12 14-OCT-19 FR (HFCK) 2010/7YR 26-OCT-10 2-OCT-17 FXD (HFCK) 2010/7YR 26-OCT-10 2-OCT-17 I&M MEDIUM TERM NOTE FXD I&M-01/13/5.25 13-DEC-13 8-MAR-19 FRN I&M-01/13/5.25 13-DEC-13 8-MAR-19 BRITAM MEDIUM TERM NOTE BRTB.BD.22/07/19-0037-13 22-JUL-14 15-JUL-19 UAP HOLDINGS MEDIUM TERM NOTE UAP.BD.22.07.2019 28-JUL-14 22-JUL-19 NIC MEDIUM TERM NOTE NIC.BD.09/09/19-0039-12.5 8-SEP-14 9-SEP-19 CIC INSURANCE GROUP LTDMEDIUM TERM NOTE CIC.BD.22.07.2019 8-OCT-14 2-OCT-19 CFC STANBIC MULTICURRENCY MEDIUM TERM NOTE CFCB.BD.08/12/21-0042-12.95 15-DEC-14 8-DEC-21 CBA FIXED MEDIUM TERM NOTE CBAB.BD.14/12/20-0041-12.75 22-DEC-14 14-DEC-20

BONDS LISTED AT THE NAIROBI SECURITIES EXCHANGE

APRIL 1ST 2015

ISSUE

MATURITY

ISSUED VALUE COUPON

DATE

DATE

IN MILLIONS

(%)

TRADED YIELD

ISSUE NO.

PREVIOUS PRICE (%)

FXD 3/2013/2YR

26-AUG-13

24-AUG-15 17,927.40

12.9390

101.1994

FXD 4/2013/2YR

24-DEC-13

21-DEC-15 25,251.00

11.5530

100.7496

FXD 1/2014/2YR

24-MAR-14

21-MAR-16 20,000.00

10.8030

100.2806

FXD 2/2014/2YR

26-MAY-14

23-MAY-16 20,130.15

10.7930

100.2106

FXD 3/2014/2YR

22-DEC-14

19-DEC-16

8,905.12

10.8900

100.1030

FXD 1/2015/2YR

23-JAN-15

20-FEB-17 23,592.55

11.4700

100.9404

FIVE YEAR BONDS FXD 1/2010/5YR

24-MAY-10

18-MAY-15 11,924.85

6.9510

98.9033

FXD 2/2010/5YR

30-NOV-10

23-NOV-15 14,973.10

6.6710

97.2455

FXD 1/2011/5YR

31-JAN-11

25-JAN-16

22,083.10

7.6360

97.0450

FXD 1/2012/5YR

28-MAY-12

22-MAY-17 31,079.55

11.8550

101.7242

FXD 1/2013/5YR

29-APR-13

23-APR-18 20,240.75

12.8920

104.1167

FXD 2/2013/5YR

1-JUL-13

25-JUN-18 26,340.05

11.3050

100.3825 101.6262

FXD 3/2013/5YR

25-NOV-13

19-NOV-18 14,937.80

11.9520

FXD 1/2014/ 5YR

28-APR-14

22-APR-19 25,540.95

10.8700

97.8865

FXD 2/2014/ 5YR

23-JUN-14

17-JUN-19

16,418.25

11.9340

101.3943

24-APR-06

13-APR-15

3,060.25

13.5000

102.2668

NINE YEAR BONDS FXD 1/2006/9YR TEN YEAR BONDS FXD 1/2006/10YR

27-MAR-06

14-MAR-16

3,451.05

14.0000

102.1563

FXD 2/2006/10YR

29-MAY-06

16-MAY-16

5,028.10

14.0000

103.9277

FXD 1/2007/10YR

29-OCT-07

16-OCT-17

9,308.80

10.7500

99.3880

FXD 1/2008/10YR

29-OCT-07

16-OCT-17

2,992.75

10.7500

95.8019

FXD 2/2008/10YR

28-JUL-08

16-JUL-18

13,504.70

10.7500

100.4667

FXD 3/2008/10YR

29-SEP-08

28-SEP-18

4,151.60

10.7500

94.9482

FXD 1/2009/10YR

27-SEP-09

15-APR-19

4,966.85

10.7500

96.1897

FXD 1/2010/10YR

26-APR-10

13-APR-20 19,394.15

8.7900

86.1135

FXD 2/2010/10YR

1-NOV-10

19-OCT-20 18,849.90

9.3070

91.4516

FXD 1/2012/10YR

25-JUN-12

13-JUN-22

16,803.75

12.7050

107.2197

FXD 1/2013/10YR

1-JUL-13

19-JUN-23

12,643.05

12.3710

FXD 1/2014/10YR

27-JAN-14

15-JAN-24

30,520.25

12.1800

12.2500

99.8013

100,000,000

FXD 1/2014/10YR

27-JAN-14

15-JAN-24

30,520.25

12.1800

12.2300

99.8013

100,000,000

25-SEP-06

11-SEP-17

4,031.40

13.7500

97.6357

FXD1/2006/12YR

28-AUG-06

13-AUG-18

3,900.95

14.0000

105.2139

FXD1/2007/12YR

28-MAY-07

13-MAY-19

4,864.60

13.0000

104.9016

100.1496

ELEVEN YEAR BONDS FXD1/2006/11YR TWELVE YEAR BONDS

FIFTEEN YEAR BONDS PREVIOUS PRICE

TOTAL VALUE TRADE (KSHS)

FXD1/2007/15YR

26-MAR-07

7-MAR-22

3,654.60

14.5000

109.0397

FXD2/2007/15YR

25-JUN-07

6-JUN-22

7,236.95

13.5000

108.2496

FXD3/2007/15YR

26-NOV-07

7-NOV-22

17,568.00

12.5000

99.9310

31-MAR-08

13-MAR-23

7,830.90

12.5000

100.6070 102.7808

2,917.10 1,250.80

13.5000 12.7500

105.2550 99.9620

FXD1/2009/15YR

26-OCT-09

7-OCT-24

9,420.45

12.5000

1,480.60 196.50 1.00

13.2500 13.6000

99.1677 100.0000

FXD1/2010/15YR

29-MAR-10

10-MAR-25 20,823.73

10.2500

87.1031

FXD2/2010/15YR

25-APR-11

8-DEC-25

13,513.10

9.0000

81.9916

FXD1/2012/15YR

24-SEP-12

6-SEP-27

21,089.45

11.0000

500.00 4,239.70 760.30

12.7500 12.7500

100.7057

FXD1/2013/15YR

25-FEB-13

7-FEB-28

40,886.33

11.2500

FXD2/2013/15YR

29-APR-13

10-APR-28 17,385.85

12.0000

97.0362

1,300 700

11.5000

112.6478

13,000,000

13.0000

97.91 2,402.09

12.5000

100.0000 99.7458

750,000

15,625

12.5000

100.9405

8,125,000

8.0000 8.0000

93.8370 96.5610 96.5610

2,969.10 2,969.10 1,166.50 5,864.40

13.0000 13.0000

101.6815 101.6815

8.5000

99.9793

8,000,000

3,429.00 226.00

12.8000

101.8519

31,000,000

6,000.00

13.0000

98.9609

2,000.00

13.0000

99.9807

400,000 400,000

96.6990

300,000,000

FXD1/2008/20YR

30-JUN-08

5-JUN-28

20,360.95

13.7500

FXD1/2011/20YR

30-MAY-11

5-MAY-31

9,365.80

10.0000

FXD1/2012/20YR

26-NOV-12

1-NOV-32

43,082.72

12.0000

13.0052

92.3815

200,000,000

FXD1/2012/20YR

26-NOV-12

1-NOV-32

43,082.72

12.0000

13.2000

92.3815

200,000,000

28-JUN-10

28-MAY-35 20,192.50

11.2500

91.8177

28-FEB-11

21-JAN-41

23,888.95

12.0000

91.0563

79.8372

TWENTY FIVE YEAR BOND FXD1/2010/25YR THIRTY YEAR BOND SDB 1/2011/30YR

INFRASTRUCTURE BONDS 37,900,000 2,000,000

8,200,000

5,514.50

12.5000

101.0137

31,000,000

5,000.00

13.0000

101.6957

24,400,000

5,080.00

12.9500

7,000.00

12.7500

24,000,000 100.5702

91.7296 12.7500

TWENTY YEAR BOND

99.4819 85.5534 98.9373 99.9804

200.00 4,287.00 4,287.00

(KSHS)

TWO YEAR BONDS

FXD1/2008/15YR

621.50 1,378.50

TOTAL VALUE TRADED

20,000,000

IFB 1/2009/12YR

23-FEB-09

8-FEB-21

19,726.85

12.5000

105.1593

IFB 2/2009/12YR

7-DEC-09

22-NOV-21 18,897.65

12.0000

102.4081

IFB 1/2010/8YR

1-MAR-10

19-FEB-18

15,908.05

9.7500

98.2874

IFB 2/2010/9YR

31-AUG-10

19-SEP-19

32,871.55

6.0000

IFB 1/2011/12YR

3-OCT-11

18-SEP-23

43,447.35

12.0000

IFB 1/2013/12YR

30-SEP-13

15-SEP-25

38,841.68

11.0000

88.4106 11.0000

102.4745

500,000,000

99.6845

IFB 1/2014/12YR

27-OCT-14

12-OCT-26 35,060.55

11.0000

11.3000

100.0059

IFB 1/2015/12YR

30-MAR-15

15-MAR-27 25,695.35

11.0000

11.2000

97.3950

85,000,000

IFB 1/2015/12YR

30-MAR-15

15-MAR-27 25,695.35

11.0000

11.4058

97.3950

300,000,000

IFB 1/2015/12YR

30-MAR-15

15-MAR-27 25,695.35

11.0000

11.5000

97.3950

100,000,000

IFB 1/2015/12YR

30-MAR-15

15-MAR-27 25,695.35

11.0000

11.5700

97.3950

100,000,000

IFB 1/2015/12YR

30-MAR-15

15-MAR-27 25,695.35

11.0000

11.3458

97.3950

180,000,000

200,000,000

26

BUSINESS DAILY | Thursday April 2, 2015

MARKET DATA Global Markets & Currencies Kenya Shilling CURRENCY US DOLLAR STG POUND EURO SA RAND KES / USHS KES / TSHS KES / RWF KES / BIF AE DIRHAM CAN $ S FRANC JPY (100) SW KRONER NOR KRONER DAN KRONER IND RUPEE HONGKONG DOLLAR SINGAPORE DOLLAR SAUDI RIYAL CHINESE YUAN AUSTRALIAN $

BUY 92.31 137.18 99.51 7.64 32.12 20.06 7.41 16.57 25.13 72.94 95.18 76.98 10.73 11.48 13.32 1.48 11.90 67.51 24.61 14.90 70.42

SELL 92.47 137.47 99.70 7.66 32.28 20.20 7.54 17.14 25.18 73.10 95.36 77.13 10.76 11.51 13.34 1.48 11.92 67.63 24.66 14.93 70.58

MEAN 92.39 137.32 99.60 7.65 32.20 20.13 7.47 16.85 25.16 73.02 95.27 77.05 10.74 11.50 13.33 1.48 11.91 67.57 24.63 14.91 70.50

US Dollar BACKGROUND EURO JAPANESE YEN BRITISH POUND SWISS FRANC AUSTRALIAN DOLLAR CANADIAN DOLLAR SWEDISH KRONA NORWEGIAN KRONE BOSNIAN MARK DANISH KRONE RUSSIA ROUBLE TURKISH LIRA ICELAND KRONA INDIAN RUPEE POLISH ZLOTY CZECH KORUNA HUNGARIAN FORINT UKRAINE HRYVNIA ISRAEL SHEKEL ALBANIAN LEK BULGARIAN LEV SERBIAN DINAR CYPRUS POUND ESTONIAN KROON GEORGIAN LARI GIBRALTAR POUND CROATIAN KUNA KAZAKHSTAN TENGE LITHUANIA LITAS LATVIAN LATS MOLDOVAN LEU MACEDONIA DENAR MALTESE LIRA ROMANIAN LEU SLOVAK KORUNA SERBIAN DINAR ARMENIAN DRAM UAE DIRHAM ANGOLAN KWANZA BURUNDI FRANC BOTSWANA PULA CONGO FRANC CAPE VERDE ESCUDO CHINESE YUAN DIJIBOUTI FRANC ALGERIAN DINAR EGYPT POUND ETHIOPIAN BIRR GHANAIAN CEDI GAMBIAN DALASI ERITREA NAFKA GUINEA FRANC RWANDA FRANC KENYA SHILLING COMORO FRANC LIBERIAN DOLLAR LESOTHO LOTI LIBYAN DINAR MOROCCAN DIRHAM MALAGASY ARIARY MAURITANIAOUGUIYA MALAWI KWACHA MOZAMBIQUE METICAL NIGERIAN NAIRA SC RUPEE SUDANESE DINAR SUDAN POUND ST HELENA POUND SIERRALEONLEON SAO TOME DOBRA SOMALI SHILLING SWAZILAND LILAGENI THAI BAHT TUNISIAN DINAR TANZANIA SHILLING UGANDA SHILLING CFA FRANC CFA FRANC MAURITIUS RUPEE SOUTH AFRICA RAND ZIMBABWE DOLLAR

FTSE 100

Europe’s Blue Chips

Currencies

BID 1.07 120.21 1.47 0.97 0.76 1.27 8.63 8.10 1.78 6.96 58.36 2.60 137.24 62.32 3.79 25.62 278.33 23.36 3.98 130.48 1.82 59.99 0.40 11.70 2.23 1.48 7.12 185.77 2.85 0.51 17.50 57.29 3.41 4.11 21.55 111.63 470.40 3.67 107.72 1,552.50 0.10 909.00 101.15 6.20 177.00 97.30 7.63 20.33 3.81 42.60 15.00 7,000.01 685.00 92.40 449.50 84.00 12.08 1.37 9.97 3,005.00 310.00 427.92 38.30 199.00 13.10 200.02 2,025.50 1.54 4,300.00 22,136.00 704.00 12.08 32.51 1.96 1,847.00 2,982.00 610.87 610.87 36.38 12.09 378.00

ASK 1.07 120.24 1.48 0.97 0.76 1.27 8.63 8.11 1.83 6.96 58.37 2.61 137.55 62.34 3.79 25.67 278.60 23.54 3.98 130.96 1.82 60.19 0.40 11.71 2.25 1.49 7.13 185.80 2.85 0.51 17.85 57.57 3.42 4.12 21.60 112.08 473.40 3.67 108.79 1,572.50 0.10 939.00 102.65 6.20 178.00 97.84 7.63 20.54 3.85 43.60 15.50 7,500.01 696.00 92.50 450.50 85.00 12.11 1.37 10.00 3,130.00 318.00 448.24 38.90 199.10 14.05 201.02 2,035.60 1.54 4,400.00 23,509.00 711.00 12.12 32.53 1.96 1,857.00 2,992.00 617.87 616.87 36.48 12.10 381.00

Based on one day performance in local currency PERFORMANCE IN LOCAL CURRENCY INDUSTRY

LAST

BANCO BILBAO VIZCAYA ARGN SPAIN

BANKS

9.41

UNCH.

DEUTSCHE BANK

GERMANY

BANKS

32.36

ING GROEP

NETHERLANDS

BANKS

LVMH MOET HENNESSY

FRANCE

ALLIANZ SE

GERMANY

COMPANY

COUNTRY

CHG % CHG

1-WK

YTD

52-WK

-0.02

0.74

21

11.18

-0.02

-0.08

2.31

29.5

-0.35

13.65

-0.03

-0.18

2.02

26

32.8

CLOTHING&ACCESSORIES

164.15

-0.35

-0.21

1.17

24.1

38.04

FULL LINE INSURANCE

161.85

-0.5

-0.31

1

17.8

31.91

ENI

ITALY

INTEGRATED OIL&GAS

16.13

-0.05

-0.31

0.56

11.2

-11.42

ZURICH INSURANCE GROUP

SWITZERLAND

FULL LINE INSURANCE

329.3

-1.4

-0.42

1.14

5.6

21.33

TELEFONICA S.A.

SPAIN

FIXED LINE TELECOMMUNICATIONS

13.26

-0.06

-0.45

-1.23

11.2

16.61

ANHEUSER-BUSCH INBEV

BELGIUM

BREWERS

113.8

-0.65

-0.57

1.61

21.2

49.54

SIEMENS

GERMANY

DIVERSIFIED INDUSTRIALS

100.7

-0.65

-0.64

0.6

7.4

3.07

ABB

SWITZERLAND

INDUSTRIAL MACHINERY

20.63

-0.16

-0.77

0.98

-2.4

-9.52

SANOFI SA

FRANCE

PHARMACEUTICALS

91.93

-0.77

-0.83

0.26

21.5

21.47

NESTLE

SWITZERLAND

FOOD PRODUCTS

73.4

-0.85

-1.14

0.41

0.6

10.29

BNP PARIBAS

FRANCE

BANKS

56.57

-0.69

-1.21

0.68

14.8

1.04

UBS GROUP

SWITZERLAND

BANKS

18.32

-0.23

-1.24

0.44

7.2

0.33

AXA

FRANCE

FULL LINE INSURANCE

23.46

-0.3

-1.24

-0.32

22.1

24.33

DAIMLER

GERMANY

AUTOMOBILES

89.73

-1.13

-1.24

1.42

30.1

30.82

L’AIR LIQUIDE

FRANCE

COMMODITY CHEMICALS

119.8

-1.6

-1.32

-0.29

16.5

21.85

LLOYDS BANKING GROUP PLC

UNITED KINGDOM

BANKS

78.28

-1.11

-1.4

-0.97

3.2

4.86

PRUDENTIAL

UNITED KINGDOM

LIFE INSURANCE

1672

-25

-1.47

-0.65

12.1

31.81

TOTAL

FRANCE

INTEGRATED OIL&GAS

46.28

-0.73

-1.54

-0.69

8.8

-2.78

DEUTSCHE TELEKOM

GERMANY

MOBILE TELECOMMUNICATIONS

17.05

-0.27

-1.56

0.15

28.7

46.81

RIO TINTO

UNITED KINGDOM

GENERAL MINING

2772

-44.5

-1.58

-1.33

-7.6

-16.94

HSBC HLDGS

UNITED KINGDOM

BANKS

574

-9.3

-1.59

-0.78

-5.7

-5.51

BAYER

GERMANY

SPECIALTY CHEMICALS

139.95

-2.4

-1.69

0.57

23.8

42.54

RECKITT BENCKISER GRP

UNITED KINGDOM

NONDURABLE HOUSEHOLD PRODUCTS

5800

-102

-1.73

-1.02

11.3

18.68

NOVARTIS AG

SWITZERLAND

PHARMACEUTICALS

96.15

-1.7

-1.74

-0.05

4.1

28.2

VODAFONE GROUP

UNITED KINGDOM

MOBILE TELECOMMUNICATIONS

220.45

-3.9

-1.74

-1.89

-1

0.07

UNILEVER CVA

NETHERLANDS

FOOD PRODUCTS

38.92

-0.71

-1.79

0.1

19.2

30.43

BASF

GERMANY

COMMODITY CHEMICALS

92.55

-1.75

-1.86

0.52

32.4

14.71

GLENCORE PLC

UNITED KINGDOM

GENERAL MINING

285.9

-5.95

-2.04

-0.78

-4.3

-7.42

BARCLAYS

UNITED KINGDOM

BANKS

242.6

-5.2

-2.1

-0.68

-0.4

3.94

BP PLC

UNITED KINGDOM

INTEGRATED OIL&GAS

436.7

-9.4

-2.11

-1.56

6.3

-9.02

ASTRAZENECA

UNITED KINGDOM

PHARMACEUTICALS

4626.5

-100

-2.12

-1.27

1.6

19.35

FINANCIERE RICHEMONT

SWITZERLAND

CLOTHING&ACCESSORIES

78.3

-1.7

-2.13

-2

-11.8

-7.23

ROYAL DUTCH SHELL A

UNITED KINGDOM

INTEGRATED OIL&GAS

2008

-44

-2.14

-1.3

-6.8

-8.35

NATIONAL GRID

UNITED KINGDOM

MULTIUTILITIES

864.7

-19.7

-2.23

-1.91

-5.8

5.19

DIAGEO

UNITED KINGDOM

DISTILLERS&VINTNERS

1859.5

-42.5

-2.23

-1.87

0.6

-0.08

BT GROUP PLC

UNITED KINGDOM

FIXED LINE TELECOMMUNICATIONS

438

-10.25

-2.29

-3.52

9.1

15.42

STANDARD CHARTERED

UNITED KINGDOM

BANKS

1093.5

-26.5

-2.37

-0.86

13.6

-12.76

Global Indices NAME

LOCATION

LAST

NET.CHNG PCT.CHNG

OPEN

HIGH

LOW

CLOSE

DJ INDU AVERAGE

NEW YORK

17,776.12

-200.19

FTSE EUROTOP 100

LONDON

3,203.28

27.98

-1.11%

17,965.37

17,965.37

17,773.02

17,976.31

0.88%

3,171.62

3,207.38

3,158.65

XETRA DAX PF/D

FRANKFURT

12,091.06

124.89

1.04%

3,175.30

11,902.92

12,103.32

11,880.19

11,966.17

CAC 40 INDEX/D

PARIS

5,097.85

64.21

1.28%

5,009.63

5,100.63

5,007.68

5,033.64

FTSE MIB/D

MILAN

23,387.90

230.78

1.00%

23,092.49

23,409.22

23,072.13

23,157.12

SMI PR/D

SWITZERLAND 9,170.87

41.89

0.46%

9,098.47

9,180.55

9,085.92

9,128.98

HANG SENG INDE/D

HONG KONG

25,082.75

181.86

0.73%

24,955.20

25,099.06

24,926.11 24,900.89

NIKKEI 225 INDEX

TOKYO

19,034.84

-172.15

-0.90%

19,129.75

19,195.23

18,927.95 19,206.99

ALL ORDINARIES

AUSTRALIA

5,832.92

-29.01

-0.49%

5,861.90

5,861.90

5,817.70

5,861.92

STRAITS TIMES/D

SINGAPORE

3,447.02

0.01

0.00%

3,439.76

3,450.54

3,435.59

3,447.01

SSE COMPOSITE/D

SHANGHAI

3,810.29

62.39

1.66%

3,748.34

3,817.08

3,742.21

3,747.90

S&P SENSEX/D

MUMBAI

28,256.06

298.57

1.07%

27,954.86

28,262.63

27,889.02

27,957.49

NAME ANGLO AMERICAN/D ASSOC.BR.FOODS/D ADMIRAL GROUP/D ABDN.ASSET.MAN/D AGGREKO/D ANTOFAGASTA/D ARM HOLDINGS/D ASHMORE/D AVIVA PLC/D ASTRAZENECA/D BAE SYSTEMS/D BARCLAYS/D BRIT AM TOBACC/D BG GROUP/D BR LAND CO/D BHP BILLITON/D BUNZL/D BP/D BURBERRY GRP/D BT GROUP/D CARNIVAL/D CENTRICA/D COMPASS GROUP/D CAPITA PLC/D CRODA INTL/D CRH/D DIAGEO/D MAN GROUP/D EVRAZ PLC/D EXPERIAN/D FRESNILLO/D G4S/D GKN/D GLENCORE/D GLAXOSMITHKLIN/D HAMMERSON/D HARGREAVES LS/D HSBC HOLDINGS/D ICAP PLC/D IAG/D INTERCONT HOTE/D IMI PLC/D IMPERIAL TOBAC/D INTERTEK GROUP/D ITV/D JOHNSON MATTHE/D KAZ MINERALS/D KINGFISHER/D LAND SECS GROU/D LEGAL & GENERA/D LLOYDS BNK GRP/D MEGGITT PLC/D MARKS & SP./D MORRISON SUPMK/D NATIONAL GRID/D NEXT/D OLD MUTUAL/D PETROFAC/D POLYMETAL INT/D PRUDENTIAL/D PEARSON/D RECKIT BNCSR G/D ROYAL BANK SCO/D ROYAL DTCH SHL/D REED ELSEVIER/D ROYAL DTCH SHL/D REXAM/D RIO TINTO/D ROLLS ROYCE PL/D RANDGOLD RES./D RSA INSRANCE G/D SABMILLER/D SAINSBURY(J)/D SCHRODERS/D SCHRODERS NV/D SAGE GROUP/D SHIRE/D STANDARD LIFE/D SMITHS GROUP/D SMITH&NEPHEW/D SERCO GROUP/D SSE PLC/D STANDRD CHART /D SEVERN TRENT/D TATE & LYLE/D TULLOW OIL/D TESCO/D UNILEVER/D UNITED UTIL GR/D VEDANTA RES/D VODAFONE GROUP/D WEIR GROUP/D WOLSELEY/D WPP PLC/D WHITBREAD/D KENYA AIRWAYS/D

LAST 1021.50 2834.00 1540.00 466.60 1543.30 728.00 1106.00 285.80 549.50 4646.50 526.60 251.50 3537.50 842.30 839.16 1472.50 1850.00 443.30 1756.00 442.75 3329.00 251.90 1182.00 1113.00 2769.00 1772.52 1881.50 206.70 201.40 1121.00 684.00 298.60 361.20 284.70 1580.50 668.00 1160.50 580.50 531.84 608.20 2663.00 1286.82 3014.00 2533.00 254.00 3420.00 211.40 374.50 1258.25 281.38 79.95 553.45 537.04 195.80 877.70 7080.00 225.60 953.00 570.00 1685.50 1473.00 5862.00 347.24 2046.00 1172.00 2147.00 581.00 2808.65 954.38 4669.00 424.30 3580.50 256.90 3233.00 2458.00 469.40 5371.67 480.40 1118.48 1145.25 138.40 1511.00 1099.67 2090.80 609.00 282.15 243.35 2839.00 936.50 499.50 221.95 1719.00 4005.00 1545.00 5268.54 8.20

CLOSE 1012.00 2818.00 1530.00 459.60 1527.00 732.50 1105.00 284.50 540.00 4626.50 523.50 242.60 3488.50 829.00 832.50 1473.50 1831.00 436.70 1733.00 438.00 3296.00 253.00 1172.00 1116.00 2739.00 1750.00 1859.50 203.80 187.70 1117.00 682.50 295.80 358.60 285.90 1546.00 665.00 1152.00 574.00 527.00 603.00 2634.00 1275.00 2963.00 2498.00 252.90 3386.00 215.00 380.60 1253.00 278.60 78.28 548.50 535.00 193.50 864.70 7025.00 222.10 953.00 576.00 1672.00 1451.00 5800.00 340.00 2008.00 1159.00 2099.00 579.00 2772.00 953.00 4693.00 420.90 3540.00 259.20 3200.00 2429.00 466.70 5365.00 475.60 1118.00 1144.00 137.90 1498.00 1093.50 2059.00 597.50 283.20 241.85 2815.00 933.00 500.00 220.45 1701.00 3993.00 1531.00 5245.00 8.20

NET.CHNG 9.50 16.00 10.00 7.00 17.00 -4.50 1.00 1.30 9.50 20.00 3.50 8.90 49.00 13.30 7.00 -1.00 19.00 6.60 23.00 4.60 33.00 -1.10 10.00 -3.00 30.00 23.00 22.00 2.90 13.50 4.00 1.50 2.80 2.60 -1.20 34.50 2.50 8.00 6.50 4.50 5.50 29.00 12.00 51.00 35.00 1.10 34.00 -3.60 -6.10 6.00 2.90 1.67 5.00 2.50 2.30 12.90 55.00 3.50 0.00 -6.00 13.50 22.00 62.00 7.40 38.50 13.00 48.00 2.00 37.00 1.50 -24.00 3.40 40.50 -2.30 33.00 29.00 2.70 10.00 4.70 1.00 2.00 0.50 12.00 6.00 32.00 11.50 -1.30 1.50 24.00 3.50 -0.50 1.50 18.00 12.00 14.00 25.00 0.00

PCT.CHNG 0.94% 0.57% 0.65% 1.52% 1.11% -0.61% 0.09% 0.46% 1.76% 0.43% 0.67% 3.67% 1.40% 1.60% 0.84% -0.07% 1.04% 1.51% 1.33% 1.05% 1.00% -0.43% 0.85% -0.27% 1.10% 1.31% 1.18% 1.42% 7.19% 0.36% 0.22% 0.95% 0.73% -0.42% 2.23% 0.38% 0.69% 1.13% 0.85% 0.91% 1.10% 0.94% 1.72% 1.40% 0.43% 1.00% -1.67% -1.60% 0.48% 1.04% 2.13% 0.91% 0.47% 1.19% 1.49% 0.78% 1.58% 0.00% -1.04% 0.81% 1.52% 1.07% 2.18% 1.92% 1.12% 2.29% 0.35% 1.33% 0.16% -0.51% 0.81% 1.14% -0.89% 1.03% 1.19% 0.58% 0.19% 0.99% 0.09% 0.17% 0.36% 0.80% 0.55% 1.55% 1.92% -0.46% 0.62% 0.85% 0.38% -0.10% 0.68% 1.06% 0.30% 0.91% 0.48% 0.00%

Thursday April 2, 2015 | BUSINESS DAILY

LI E

SALES Think like a businessman to sell and excel Page 29

27

SPORTS

Ian Duncan now d≥ops iconic pick-up Page 31

MANAGEMENT

A≥m you≥self with positive thoughts fo≥ a g≥eat p≥esentation Think about where you have succeeded, your role models, and how they would go to war and win

BUSINESS TALK SCOTT BELLOWS

C

ontinuing with the case of Kimbio pitching his business concept to NaiLab that we discussed in last week’s Business Talk, he lacked the confidence to stand before the investors and financiers to pitch his business idea.

In high stakes scenarios, positive selftalk can boost the brain’s confidence.

More confidence leads to self-efficacy.

Famed Stanford University researcher Bandura developed the concept of self-efficacy that refers to an individual’s belief in his or her capacity to execute behaviors necessary to produce specific performance achievements.

Self-efficacy reflects someone’s confidence in their ability to exert control over his or her own motivation, behaviour, and social environment. Someone’s self-perceptions influence all manner of our human experience, including our goals, amount of energy used toward goal attainment, and likelihood of reaching particular heights of behavioural performance.

Syracuse University psychologists Carey and Forsyth even state that self-efficacy can be effectively used to improve even considerably more complicated life problems than presentations such as self-management of chronic disease, smoking cessation, alcohol intake reduction or elimination, controlled eating, pain mitigation, and exercise motivation for obese individuals.

So how can Kimbio harness the power of enhanced self-efficacy in order to perform during his presentation at NaiLab? First, he must remember intentionality. He must actually work towards it, but not in simplistic terms. He should not just practise and practise it over and over again haphazardly.

Ideally, Kimbio would benefit from specific steps towards self-efficacy.

Angie LeVan of the University of Pennsylvania delineated a seven-step towards increased self-efficacy that leads to higher performance. First, imagine your past successes throughout your life. Actively ruminate on times when you succeeded at completing when you had initially not thought you could do so. Ponder those times intentionally.

Spend 20 minutes regularly thinking about those moments. What was it that you accomplished? How could you glean aspects from those successes into your future aspirations? Do those achievements point to a reality whereby you can achieve, succeed, and thrive?

Second, build your repertoire of successes. If you desire to achieve a large success, like Kimbio pitching in front of many investors, then you must build smaller successes. First pick a small element, like good eye contact, a verbal tone of confidence, hand movements, not reading your slides, among others.

Then practice them intentionally in different settings with feedback from others.

Build the successes through the practice or actual business use of the changes. Small successes build self-efficacy to make bigger changes. Achieve changes step by step over time.

Third, think of someone you admire.

You may know them personally or know a lot about them through the media. It should be someone with whom you identify. If you do, then you are more keen to believe that you, too, can achieve what they have achieved. You can vicariously, as Angie LeVan states, bolster your sense of self-efficacy by imagining your success as possible like your role models.

The fourth step sounds slightly insane.

Be happy and convince yourself that you are confident and visualise a good show.

Solid sturdy business professionals may ini- you sad, angry, or generally puts you into a tially balk at the idea. However, remember bad mood. Avoid those people or things that that a disconnect exists between what science bring you down. knows and what businesses actually do. So, Seventh, solidify your changes by seeking fourth, practice mental imagery. Mentally social support from friends, family, and trusted practice executing a particular task. Visualise colleagues. Choose people who build you up successfully completing that task. You see, vis- and do not try to knock you down. ualisation exists as a powerful Your support group tool to increase the self-efficacy should exercise persistence Doubts a≥e that opens doors towards better and resilience to support you performance. You undoubtedly towards your goals. no≥mal. Even remember the cliché “seeing is You need them to keep Nelson Mandela, believing”. your changes permanent.

So own it. See it mentally.

The above steps help Ba≥ack Obama, You will believe it. Such menensure your success. Share Michael Joseph, tal imagery also enables your your presentation secrets brain to imagine the small steps with fellow Business Daily and Jomo Kenyatta needed along the way to reach readers at #KenyanExecuente≥tained self your final goal. tives on Twitter. doubts Fifth, do not become crippled by your fears, doubts, Prof Scott is the Director of the New Economy Venture Acand worries. Accept that you may doubt your success. Doubts are normal. celerator at USIU’s Chandaria School of BusiEveryone has them. Even Nelson Mandela, ness, www.ScottProfessor.com, and may be Barack Obama, Michael Joseph, and Jomo reached on: info@scottprofessor.com or follow on Twitter: @ScottProfessor.

Kenyatta entertained self doubts.

But then push past it with positive self talk “I know I can do this task” “I will do well”, ....

Doing the opposite mentally will derail you completely.

Doubts do not accurately reflect your true capabilities. The human mind is capable of achieving phenomenal results far in excess of our doubts but only if we unlock our potential.

So move forward.

Sixth, emulate Pharrell Williams: be happy.

A business man or woman in a good mood boosts his or her self-efficacy. You feel you can achieve far more when you are happy than when you entertain bad emotions. Think like a detective.

What, in your life, makes you happy (certain foods, people, activities, destinations, songs, television shows and so on).

Simultane- ously, determine what makes

In next week’s edition of Business Talk, we explore “Basics of Business Plan Writing: Part 8”. Read current and prior Business Talk articles on the Business Daily’s website and www.usiu.ac.ke/blog/businessdaily.

28

BUSINESS DAILY | Thursday April 2, 2015

Life: ENTERPRISE ANNIVERSARY Start with core values from scratch and stick to them for impact and longevity

The sec≥et of businesses that g≥ow and tu≥n 50 son that will persevere and push through all of those challenges. s Crown Worldwide celeI remember when we first startbrates its 50th anniversary ed and it was a fragile business -- like this year, I am being asked all startups probably are -- we were the same question over and over always worried about whether we again: What’s the secret to keeping had enough money to pay bills and a business alive that long? whether we were doing the job right.

It’s not that easy to answer. To be You have to cope with all the ups and honest, it’s a huge anniversary and the downs. one I never thought I’d see when I 2. Have a plan and cost started the company in 1965.

Having a plan and knowing I remember when we first where you are going is key for any opened, it was from a tiny office new business, and part of that is —just a cubicle really — in Yoko- having adequate funding. Just hama, Japan, with very little capi- how much you need is difficult to tal. The fact we have define because it become an internadepends on what tional global busitype of business I don’t know if ness of good size and you are running. the≥e’s a ‘sec≥et’ strength — one that In our case we continues to grow —is started out with othe≥ than a real achievement for very little capital ha≥d wo≥k, everyone at the combut in the modern pe≥seve≥ance, and era, I wouldn’t recpany. ommend that.

I don’t know if getting the ≥ight 3. Learn to delthere’s a “secret” othteam in place egate and choose er than hard work good people and perseverance, getting the right team It is not posin place, sticking to the sible to do everybusiness we know best and doing it thing yourself in a successful busiin an extremely positive way. ness — you need to delegate. Look But for anyone starting a busi- around and think, “Who can do this ness in 2015, there are a few points better than I can? Who has the right I can make that I hope will be help- skills?” Appoint good people -- then ful: trust and support them.

4. Determination is more impor1. Be ready for a bumpy ride If anyone is thinking of starting tant than education. a business, they should be prepared There are many different types to deal with all the obstacles that of people in business with different come their way. It is rarely ever a educational backgrounds, so don’t feel excluded. Some successful peosmooth ride.

You have to be the type of per- ple are quiet, some are loud, some

BY JIM THOMPSON

A

are good salespeople or good at finance. All can make it if they have a good team to help carry forward their plan.

A degree of formal education is helpful for anybody and I encourage it. But having a degree is not an essential part of being successful as an entrepreneur. The qualities you do need are a lot of stamina and determination.

5. Know your core values It is easy to think core values are something you only worry about when the business is already successful. But in fact the reverse is true: Core values are what make

Companies that thrive have learnt to hire only the good people, who are empowered, making delegation an easy process.

you successful in the first place.

Having respect for the people who work for you, believing in doing a good job in the right way, giving the customer a good experience, communicating with people, giving something back to society — all these things are critical.

Do things the right way and you’ll have a better chance of success.

6. Don’t sell too quickly Retain ownership of your business if you can. Don’t give it away or sell too early. So many entrepreneurs today say, “I’m going to run it for five years then sell it.” But I don’t

think that’s what true entrepreneurs do. Instead, that’s being a speculator.

I almost sold once in the early part of the company’s history.

I had an offer on the table but had a change of heart and walked away, and it was the smartest thing I ever did.

Now we have a business at Crown Worldwide with a turnover of more than $800 million.

Thompson is the Chairman and Founder of Crown Worldwide.

Easy public speaking steps for entrepreneurs

Y

ou have delivered good presentations before, but recently, you don’t know how to take your public speaking skills to the next level.

This happens to the best of us — even pros who consistently get paid to speak. However, successful entrepreneurs keep speaking.

They may find it challenging to give a great TED talk, but they still speak. Again, and again, and again.

They aren’t superheroes, and they don’t have magic powers.

So what is the secret?

1. Focus on the audience Most entrepreneurs worry, “How will I look on stage?” They focus on themselves. Successful entrepreneurs think differently: they don’t

focus on themselves, they focus on the audience.

World-class speakers ask, “What do I want the audience think, do or feel differently after my presentation?” Focus on sharing your message with the audience and you will become more successful.

3. Be conversational Have you ever heard presenters using buzzwords such as “leverage” and “synergy” to make themselves sound more professional? These words are meaningless.

Successful entrepreneurs avoid buzzwords.

2. Engage The scarcest commodity in the business world is attention. If you’re a boring speaker, the audience will check their emails or think about where to have dinner tonight. To grab the audience’s attention, you need to keep them engaged.

One easy way is to engage people’s emotions: ask questions, tell stories or play a short video.

4. Tell powerful stories Stories are powerful because they engage people’s emotions. When you engage people’s emotions, they will pay attention and be inspired to take action.

The best stories are usually from your personal experiences because you know them best and nobody can challenge you.

5. Use slides that are visually en-

gaging Average entrepreneurs use hundreds of bullet points in presentation slides. The bullet attack makes the audience feel, “Oh my God! Another boring presentation.”

Successful entrepreneurs use slides differently. Instead of bullet points, they use pictures.

6. Get coaching The key to peak performance is coaching. Even personal development legend Tony Robbins has a coach.

7. Keep learning World-class entrepreneurs never stop learning because they want to be on top of the industry.

-ENTREPRENEUR

To engage the audience well, focus on them, not how you look.

Thursday April 2, 2015 | BUSINESS DAILY

29

Life: MANAGEMENT CHANGE OF TACK Business people are keen on solving problems, not excuses

Think like a business owne≥ fo≥ success in sales and excel

BottomLine

Empathy is the magic wand that produces meetings of value

BY ANNIE MCKEE

W

SALES PITCH

e all hate meetings. They are usually a waste of time. And yes, they’re here to stay. So it’s your responsibility as a leader to make them better.

This doesn’t mean just make them shorter, more efficient or more organised. People need to enjoy them, too.

Happiness matters at work. The alternatives — frustration, discontent and outright hatred of our jobs — interfere with the creativity and innovation, not to mention the collaboration, that ideally happen at meetings.

So how do we make meetings more enjoyable and positive? Of course, baseline fixes include inviting the right people, creating better agendas and being better prepared. But to improve how people work together at meetings, you also need empathy and emotional self-management.

Empathy allows you to read people. Who’s supporting whom? Who’s angry and who’s coasting? Where is the resistance? People-reading isn’t as easy as it seems. Sometimes, the smartest resisters often look like supporters, but they’re actually sneaky idea-killers.

Power is the real currency in most organizations. And it plays out in meetings. Learning to read how the flow of power is moving and shifting can help you lead the meeting - and everything else. Using empathy will also help you understand how people are responding to you. As a leader you are, possibly, the most powerful person at the meeting.

This is where emotional self-management comes in. By managing your responses, you can make the group dynamics better or worse.

If you manage your more positive emotions, such as hope and enthusiasm, others will “mirror” these feelings and the general tone of the group will be marked by optimism. We think more clearly and creatively when our feelings are largely positive.

Of course, your negative emotions are also contagious.

Express anger, contempt or disrespect and you will definitely push people into fight mode - individually and collectively.

In the end, it’s your job to make sure people leave your meeting feeling good about what’s happened, their contributions and you as the leader. Empathy allows you to read what’s going on, and self-management helps you support the group in getting things done - happily.

JOHN KAGECHE

O

ne of the major challenges many sales people face is the ability to think like a businessman. In most cases they get by without having to but in some they struggle when they don’t.

Sales representatives in oil companies and fast-moving-consumer-goods (FMCG) plus corporate and wealth managers are examples of sellers who find themselves in this dilemma.

This happens because their buyers are businessmen and they are employees. An employee’s thinking is as different from a businessman’s as day is from night. The employee works in a structured environment, with a regular income and his financial horizon is usually 30 days to the next salary; the businessman is focused on the success of his business, a comparatively unstructured environment, erractic income and a long-term financial horizon. He is not a buyer you will ‘push’ a product to that does not make business sense.

For instance, in addition to overseeing the supply of the contractual amount of fuel, say 10,000 litres to the dealer, the oil company’s rep’s job is to ‘push’ more sales with every depletion.

Phone calls, visits and e-mails insisting on this rarely help.

Understanding business, banks have premier business clubs as a platform for their businessmen clients to network and FMCGs have aggressive marketing campaigns ‘pulling’ customers to ask for their product.

The salesperson though must ‘push’ with business sense. This starts with a genuine interest in the buyer’s business and, therefore, gaining his trust. I once read in Forbes that to be useful to an organisation, find out what keeps the CEO (who is a businessman) awake at night and make it your business during the day.

To succeed in selling, understand what the businessman wants and make it your business to help him succeed.

The typical employee response I get whenever I ask this question is, “it’s just money he wants”, as if to suggest the employee would work for free. It could be he wants recognition or to plug an income leakage for his fleet of lorries.

Remember he’s depositing Sh10 million as security with your oil company

was not for lack of an alternative avenue to invest in. With genuine understanding, it becomes easier to help him achieve his goal and easier to present a business case to your employer (the other business you represent) why pay delayed and how it will be settled in a win-win fashion.

Bereft of such a case, credit control follows what the policy says, and the account is suspended or closed and your selling is impeded.

The businessman’s frame of mind is solution oriented. He wants to know how it can be done, not why it cannot.

Company policy is, therefore, subject to interpretation for the progressive seller.

This does not imply unethical practice.

No. It implies not wearing blinders in the application of the policy and using policy as a guideline not deadline to

While pitching for a sale, look at the bigger picture of helping the prospect’s business to grow.

protect your employer while growing and retaining business.

The progressive representative, therefore, visits the dealer’s clients with him and even presents credible cases to him on how to increase traffic to his fuel station.

Thus, he can justify to the dealer why he should replenish when he requests him to, because there is business sense to it. And the more the dealer replenishes, the more the oil company sells and the more the salesperson sells too. All because he thought and acted like a businessman.

Kageche is lead facilitator, Lend Me Your Ears, a sales training and speech writing firm. Email:lendmeyourear s@consultant.com

McKee is a senior fellow at the University of Pennsylvania and director of the PennCLO Executive Doctoral Program.

She is the co-author of “Primal Leadership” with Daniel Goleman and Richard Boyatzis.

30

BUSINESS DAILY | Thursday April 2, 2015

Life: INVESTMENT

TIMES CROSSWORD 25, 035 1

2

3

4

5

6

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

CEOs should learn the art of making decisions and apply.

17

18 19

20

How chief executives can b≥eak f≥om the fo≥t≥ess of isolation T he role of the CEO is inherently isolating. They’re expected to be on top of the game at all times, yet it’s often lonely up there — and many CEOs don’t know how to break out of their Fortress of Solitude.

Here, some isolating factors and how to mitigate them.

1) They have no peers in the company.

As the top dog, they have no one to confide in at the office. They have no boss on a day-to-day basis. If they were promoted from within, they’re now managing their former colleagues.

2) They don’t get honest feedback.

With no immediate superior, CEOs receive little input on their performance outside of quarterly financial results and shareholder feedback.

This can be especially disconcerting for a first-time CEO. Also, subordinates will be reluctant to point out any shortcomings and will filter what they say when — if— they say it.

Often, the information CEOs do hear is overwhelmingly positive or so diluted that it doesn’t represent reality.

3) They must make decisions in ar-

eas where they’re not experts. CEOs get jobs as CEOs because they excelled in a functional role such as sales, marketing or engineering.

All of a sudden, no longer the smartest person in their area in every meeting, they must make major decisions in unfamiliar territory.

4) They have total responsibility.

The buck stops with the CEO. If the company succeeds, the CEO gets the credit. If the company fails, he or she gets all the blame.

5) Yet they have limited control. Despite having total responsibility, CEOs quickly realize they don’t have a lot of control.

What they should do to prevent becoming too removed.

1) Seek out mentors and trusted advisers. CEOs need to build a network of contacts outside the business that will provide objective advice.

They should cultivate relationships with mentors and coaches who can be sounding boards. In addition, they should take advantage of personal training and development programs.

Ask for feedback from all levels of the organization.

2) Minimise the interference of their gatekeepers. Gatekeepers mean well but often shelter the boss from important information.

3) Learn to make decisions with incomplete information. CEOs need to become comfortable with making decisions even when they don’t have all the information.

They should study the art of good decisionmaking, and apply it.

4) Understand their influence. Somewhere between micromanaging everything and taking a hands-off approach lies the answer to being a good CEO. They may have little control, but he or she does have influence.

CEOs cultivate this by developing and instilling a compelling vision and then tying that vision to every employee’s dayto-day job.

Being a savvy CEO means one knows -or learns -- how to escape the trappings of that corner office and keep a finger on the pulse of the organization.

-ENTREPRENEUR

Docto≥ contests law taking pe≥son’s name An Alabama doctor-turned-lawmaker is seeking to overturn a state law named for one of his patients, whose death 16 years earlier triggered legislation requiring insurers to pay for minimum post-pregnancy hospital stays, records show.

“Rose’s Law,” named after 36year-old Rose Church, who died of a heart attack 10 days after giving birth in 1998, requires insurers in Alabama to cover postpregnancy hospital stays up to

8

7

48 hours. It was championed by her widower, Gene Church, who said she was discharged too quickly and without proper tests.

State Senator Larry Stutts, a Republican first elected in November 2014, was Church’s gynaecologist at the time of her death, and was named in a lawsuit filed by the widower. Stutts introduced his measure on March 18, billing it in a subsequent Facebook posting as a means to eliminate intrusion into doctor-patient relations

and as getting rid of “one-sizeYesterday’s solutions are not fits-all Obamacare-style laws.” available due to technical Church differs. “This was a perproblems sonal vendetta. The irony is that 16 years later no one remembered what happened with my wife, or very few people did,” Church said. “Now, everybody is going to know.” Church filed a lawsuit against Stutts, the hospital where his wife gave birth and a second doctor, alleging medical malpractice. It was settled on confidential terms.

23

21

24

22

25

27

26

Across 1 Extra-hearty lettuce is back in city (6) 5 Lands round front of green: God! About seven feet for an eagle (8) 9 Give it one’s best shot? (5,3) 10 Mean to run tailender out and close (6) 11 Holy city famed in all parts (6) 12 Girl, sort of drip, almost embraced by Pole (8) 14 Edition of most talented writing (3,9) 17 Potential item? It’s a very old story (3,5,4) 20 Red conspirator brought to prisoner’s place (8) 22 Golden tree needing laborious cleaning?

(6) 23 Writing English arrested at a public event abroad (6) 25 Highly-regarded exercise involving wild tigers (8) 26 Work in eleven parts that may bear your stamp (8) 27 Holder of first course originally called dull routine gets backing (6)

Down 2 A hairstyle, one pound less that’s charming (6) 3 Sweet fellow that holds up all the traffic (8,3) 4 Rush away, fly — on horse? (9) 5 The three of us in London said to be Presbyterian (3,4) 6 New to a person’s service (5) 7 No time for deck-chair — one may be pounding the beach (3) 8 White man went over province he made notes (8) 13 Beat one promising streetwalker in the evening (11) 15 Competitor in marquee with a number of bonds (9) 16 South American countess broke the hearts of noble kings (8) 18 Anger man put into verse (7) 19 Judge view to be in contention (6) 21 Don’t agree with party ... (5) 24 ... have interview with Salisbury, for one (3)

SUDOKU PUZZLE

223

How to play Fill the grid so that every row, every column and every 3x3 box contains 1-9.

You solve the puzzle with reasoning and logic and not mathematical ability

Thursday April 2, 2015 | BUSINESS DAILY

Ian Duncan ≥eloads by ditching iconic pick-up fo≥ new vehicle RALLY

BY KOOME KAZUNGU

Legend has had problems with car’s exhaust pipe, mettalic shift, and gears

R

ally legend Ian Duncan has dropped his his iconic Nissan pick-up for a brand new Group N Mitsubishi Evolution X. Duncan will power the car in the ongoing KCB rally championship. The move to use the

new car comes after a frustrating breakdown of the pick-up in Kisumu Rally Series.

“The pick-up was good but I had problems with exhaust pipe, breaking of metallic shift and I had problem changing the gears,” says Ian .

The Evolution X’s market price before rally customisation is Sh6.8 million.

It boasts a bespoke engine Ecu remap that develops 440bhp at 6800 rpm, a six-speed twin clutch sports shift transmission, high flow fuel injectors, and Alcon front braking system, six -pot mono block front calipers with a floating disc and a climate control advanced features and a data recorder.

The new car will also record driving style, trip histories and location.

“It’s a world-class rally car which is efficient and if the roads aren’t rough I will maintain the machine,” says Duncan, a safari rally veteran.

Work hard The rally driver, who was born in Tigoni, Limuru, says that life is a challenge and you have to give your best in the rallies.

“It’s how you make it that counts, you have to work hard and you have to make it happen, if you give your best shot it will happen,” the rally legend says.

The car’s New Super all-wheel control system makes the machine to work seamlessly under great control and can be tailored to snow, gravel or tarmac surfaces at the flick of a button Duncan will make his debut with the new car at the championship rally in Meru during the Easter weekend of April 4- 5 .

“I’m excited about the new car, its power and its rallying pedigree as well as to raise the profile of sports through advanced technology

by Liquid Telcom. I’d say the season is looking up for all the involved,” he adds.

Since Mitsubishi Lancer, Evolution x is more sophisticated, and comes with the biggest technology advancement, the question is whether Duncan will be the man to watch.

Ian Duncan’s Nissan in Soy Sambu during a past rally. Duncan is replacing the pick-up with Mistubishi Evolution X, which he says is a great machine. FILE

Mats Hummels (right) is being monitored by Manchester United. AFP

Man U ta≥get Mats Hummels says Red Devils his d≥eam Manchester United-target Mats Hummels has said if he ever transfers abroad it will only be to the Red Devils after telling Borussia Dortmund he is weighing up his future options.

Borussia’s captain, 26, has a Dortmund contract until 2017, but has long been courted

by United, whose current manager Louis van Gaal is looking for a defensive leader with the English giants poised to table a bid, according to UK media reports.

Germany centre-back Hummels told Monday’s edition of German magazine Kicker that he “often thinks about moving abroad”, but gave Tuesday’s edition of German daily Bild a far stronger indication of his Manchester thoughts.

“If I was to transfer abroad at some stage, then it would only be to Manchester United,” Hummels is reported to have said.

Hummels agent, his father Hermann, is a friend of United boss Van Gaal from when they both worked at Bayern Munich, where Hummels senior was youth team co-ordinator until 2012, while Van Gaal was head coach from 2009 until 2011.

Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke says the World Cup-winner has informed them he is weighing up his options.

“Mats had a conversation with (director of sport) Michael Zorc and myself two weeks ago, when he informed us that he is thinking about his future,” said Watzke.

“That is completely legitimate. “He has a contract until 2017 and we haven’t received an offer, therefore we’re pretty relaxed.”

-AFP

kkazungu@ke.nationmedia.com

SPORTS BRIEFING Masters enthusiasts to wait longer for Woods play word The lingering ‘will he play/won’t he play?’ scenario with Tiger Woods ahead of next week’s Masters entered a new phase on Tuesday when the former world number one played a practice round at Augusta National.

Woods’ manager Mark Steinberg told Reuters that Woods had played 18 holes at the iconic Masters venue as he continued to assess whether his game would be “tournament-ready” for the first major of the year.

However, Steinberg did not say whether Woods was any closer to reaching a de-

cision about competing this year at the Masters, where he is a four-times champion.

Woods, whose ranking has plummeted to a mind-boggling 104th, has struggled badly for form and fitness this season, and has played only twice on the 2014-15 PGA Tour.

He posted the highest score of his professional career, an 11-over-par 82, to miss the cut at the Phoenix Open in January, and withdrew from the Farmers Insurance Open early last month after 11 holes because of tightness in his back.

Tiger Woods: To play or not to play. AFP

Real Madrid and Porto reach agreement on signing Danilo European champions Real Madrid have completed the signing of Brazilian international right-back Danilo from Porto on a six-year deal.

“Real Madrid and Porto have reached an agreement for the transfer of Danilo (right) , who will join next season and be tied to the club until June 30, 2021,” the club said in a statement on Wednesday.

A statement by Porto to the Portuguese stock exchange said the deal was worth $34.2 million (Sh3 billion).

The 23-year-old joined Porto from Santos in 2012 and has won two league titles

with the Portuguese giants as well as playing a big part in their run to the quarter-final of the Champions League where they will face Bayern Munich next month.

Danilo also won a silver medal with Brazil at the 2012 Olympics and has become a regular with his national team since Dunga took charge of the five-time world champions following a disappointing World Cup on home soil last year.

31

32

BUSINESS DAILY | Thursday April 2, 2015 FIND US ON FACE BOOK & TWITTER

TOMORROW: Your minute of the day

Ban Ki-Moon,UN SecretaryGeneral,page 9

Edward Mabaya,assistant director CIIFAD , page 15

businessdailyafrica

The business of taking a break

Your free weekly magazine

GLOBAL MARKET WATCH DJ INDU 17,776.12 -200.19

FTSE 100 3,203.28 27.98

XETRA 12,091.06 124.89

BD_Africa

www.businessdailyafrica.com

CURRENCY RATES CAC 40 5,097.85 64.21

FTSE MIB 23,387.90 230.78

SMI PR 9,170.87 41.89

HANG SENG 25,082.75 181.86

NIKKEI 225 19,034.84 -172.15

ALL ORD. 5,832.92 -29.01

STRAITS 3,447.02 0.01

S&P SENSEX 28,256.06 298.57

USh 32.12 TSh 20.06 SAR 7.64

$: 92.31 £: 137.18 €: 99.51

Market Activity LAST

M

MARKET CAP IN SH BN

The killings, the worst of their kind since apartheid ended in 1994, became known as the “Marikana massacre.” The presidency said Zuma was currently on a state visit in Algeria and would “prioritise the consideration of the report on his return.”

Marikana probe report out South Africa’s presidency said it had received a report on an inquiry into the police shooting of 34 striking mine workers in 2012, the deadliest security action since the end of apartheid. The inquiry, headed by retired judge Ian Farlam, was set up by President Jacob Zuma to look into events that led to the killing of the miners at Lonmin’s Marikana platinum mines on Aug. 16, 2012.

Troops retake Nigeria town Soldiers from Chad and Niger on Tuesday drove Boko Haram Islamist militants from a border town that was one of the insurgency’s last footholds in northeastern Nigeria, Chad’s government and army spokesmen said. A joint offensive by Nigeria and its neighbours has succeeded in driving the militants from most of the

positions they held earlier this year, an advance that forced Nigeria to delay a February election.

Ex-Mali leader faces probe Exiled former Malian leader Amadou Toumani Toure has given evidence in a probe into alleged Libyan funding for Nicolas Sarkozy’s (below) 2007 French presidential election campaign, an aide said Tuesday. Toure, who has been in the Senegalese capital Dakar since being overthrown in

Tragic flight video found

Yemen factory blast kills 25

A video showing the chaotic final seconds on board the Germanwings flight that crashed in the French Alps last week has been discovered near the site, Germany’s “Bild” daily reported on Wednesday, saying it had seen the footage. The video was found on a mobile phone belonging to one of the passengers killed on the flight when German pilot Andreas Lubitz deliberately flew into a mountain, said the paper. The scenes seen on the video were chaotic and very wobbly, said Bild, adding screams and shouts of “My God” could be heard, indicating the passengers knew what was happening..

An explosion at a dairy factory in Yemen’s Hodaida port killed at least 25 workers, medical sources said, with conflicting accounts attributing the blast to an air strike by a Saudi-led alliance or to a rocket landing from a nearby army base. The incident would appear to be one of the biggest cases of civilian deaths since a Saudiled coalition began an air campaign against Houthi militia on March 26.

Environment NEWS

Iran nuclear talks extended Six world powers and Iran met again later yesterday in a bid to reach an outline accord reining in Tehran’s nuclear programme, after failing to agree crucial details such as the lifting of UN sanctions by a Tuesday deadline. The negotiators ended talks in the Swiss city of Lausanne in the early hours of Wednesday and said they would reconvene later in the day.

a March 2012 coup, was summoned

by Senegalese detectives following a formal request from France, the aide said. He was “asked what he knows of Libyan financing” allegedly provided to Sarkozy by former dictator Muammer Gaddafi.

SA group wins book prize A South African organisation promoting reading among children and young people has won the world’s biggest prize for children’s literature, the jury for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award said on Tuesday.

The jury praised PRAESA, Project for the Study of Alternative Education in South Africa, for its “innovative reading and storytelling projects”.

TOTAL SHARES TRADED EQUITY TURNOVER IN SH BONDS TURNOVER

PREVIOUS

2,446.38

2,444.83

52,875,800

25,157,500

1,731,629,281

669,284,741

2,592,375,000

2,600,800,000

TOTAL DEALS (BONDS)

41

24

TOTAL DEALS (EQUITY)

1,953

2,098

5,240.53

5,248.16

NSE 20 SHARE INDEX NSE ALL SHARE INDEX

175.22

175.11

FTSE NSE KENYA 15 INDEX

231.27

231.56

FTSE NSE KENYA 25 INDEX

231.52

231.87

FTSE NSE KENYA BOND INDEX

92.39

93.11

1,234.76

1,230.76

FTSE ASEA PAN AFRICAN INDEX

HE SAID “It’s not about electing the right people.

It’s about a narrowing their responsibilities.”

- John Stossel American consumer television personality

stronghold in the city. With officials touting victory in a month-long battle, state television said Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi was visiting the city, which the Islamist militants captured last June as they seized most of Iraq’s Sunni territories. Security forces were fighting to clear the last Islamic State stronghold, the northern neighborhood of Qadissiyah, Interior Minister Mohammed al-Ghabban told reporters in the city.

Download the NMG PLAY app on Google Play and scan this QR code with your smart phone for pictures, videos and more stories

Iraq: Most of Tikrit free Iraqi troops and Shi’ite paramilitary fighters were battling Islamic State on Wednesday in northern Tikrit, which officials described as the Sunni Muslim militant group’s last

Ants grapple with zero-g

Comets ‘paint Mercury black’

Antarctic ice shelf thinning

Ants carried to the International Space Station were still able to use teamwork to search new areas, despite falling off the walls of their containers for up to eight seconds at a time. Their “collective search” was hampered but still took place, biologists said. The insects also showed an impressive knack for regaining their footing after taking a zero-g tumble.

Mercury’s dark surface was produced by a steady dusting of carbon from passing comets, a new study says. Mercury reflects very little light but its surface is low in iron, which rules out the presence of iron nanoparticles, the most likely “darkening agent”. First, researchers modelled how much carbon-rich material could have been dropped by comets.

Scientists have their best view yet of the status of Antarctica’s floating ice shelves and they find them to be thinning at an accelerating rate. Fernando Paolo and colleagues used 18 years of data from European radar satellites to compile their assessment. In the first half of that period, the total losses from these tongues of ice amounted to 25 cubic kilometres per year.

speeds up

WEATHER High 25°C (78°F) Low 140C (560F)

Nairobi: 3-day forecast Thu Fri Sat

Mostly Sunny Mostly Sunny Mostly Sunny

High

Low

23°C

14°C

25°C

15°C

25°C

14°C