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The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) has warned that smaller businesses could be excluded from world government’s plans to make business transactions digital. This is according to new research in which they have compared the success and failure of global attempts to digitalize tax. This is on the back of recent efforts by the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) to increase the tax net by targeting SMEs through introduction of measures such as levying of presumptive taxes. Commenting on the release of the report, ICAEW Technical Manager, David Lyford-Smith said that the risk of exclusion of the smaller business dents the chances of business being totally compliant. “The largest and most persistent issue in introducing the digitalization of tax is that of digital exclusion, which is common among small businesses. While the Government and the KRA can work to educate and provide resources for many affected by digital exclusion, total compliance remai...

A Kenyan seed company with extensive business activities across the East African region topped the Access to Seeds Index for Eastern and Southern Africa 2019. This is attributed to them playing a key role in raising smallholder farmer productivity, according to new research by the Amsterdam-based Access to Seeds Foundation. Kenya-based East African Seed, placed first, has grown its activities in the region since the first index was published in 2016.  According to this year’s edition of the index, East African Seed stood out for its robust strategies in servicing smallholder farmers, broad portfolio availability, research activities and a network of extension staff across multiple countries. The Access to Seeds Index 2019 – Eastern and Southern Africa evaluates the actions of 22 leading seed companies in Eastern and Southern Africa. Besides East African Seed and Zimbabwe’s Seed Co, Thailand’s East-West Seed, US-based Corteva Agriscience, the agriculture division of DowDu...

Sanofi, a global pharmaceutical company has  announced the extension of the registration period for the call for proposals for this year’s VivaTech, an annual technology conference, dedicated to innovation and startups to February 22 nd 2019. Sanofi Kenya Country Chair and General Manager Peter Munyasi said that the extension will allow more start-ups to register for the competition which seeks for innovative solutions that improve awareness, diagnosis and management of diseases in the region. The initial deadline was February 15 th , 2019. “So far we have received 17 entries from East Africa and we are encouraging more innovators to send their entries to this competition. I believe we are on course to registering a higher number of start-ups compared to last year, “said Mr Munyasi. A jury of professionals will select the final start-ups in March. Start-ups will be evaluated according to 5 criteria which are concrete evidence of positive results in at least one...

Michael Armstrong (FCA): ICAEW Regional Director for the Middle East, Africa and South Asia The efficiency, convenience and reach of financial services have been significantly enhanced by the development of the fintech industry. Today, services including payments, insurance, lending, capital raising and investment management have all benefited from the boom in fintech.  These opportunities are reflected in the fast-growing investment value of the fintech sector, with global fintech investment almost doubling to US$38.9bn between 2014 and 2017. One of the most transformational opportunities presented by fintech is financial inclusion, as new technologies enable more people to access financial services. Around 2 billion people worldwide do not have a bank account and rely entirely on cash; however, many of the people in these areas have mobile phones. Kenya is among the countries where financial inclusion has been developed through the mobile money system. The mode...

Kariuki Fernandes, Head of Partnerships at Taxify & Matata Munyeke, Chief Commercial Officer-Emerging Brands at Simba Corporation Ride-hailing firm Taxify, in partnership with Stanbic Bank and Renault Kenya, has today announced a vehicle financing dealership for Taxify drivers in Kenya. The partnership is expected to see a number of individual drivers benefit 100% financing from Stanbic Bank. As part of the agreement, Renault Kenya, a sub-brand of Simba Corporation, will provide Renault KWIDS with engine capacity of 800cc and fuel efficiency of 24km/litre. The vehicle is financed at 0% deposit with the repayment tenure being 36 months. The partnership also offers a 25% discount on part replacement, 20% discount on labour and AA rescue to all drivers. Taxify will vet and pre-qualify drivers who have met various criterion including positive driver ratings of 4.7 and above. Speaking at the partnership launch event Alex Mwaura, Taxify Country Manager, Kenya said, “We...

From left: Lydia Kakutwi (Assistant Brand Manager-Fabric Care, P&G Kenya), Anthony Ng'ang'a (Brands Commercial-P&G East Africa) and Francisco Gala (Country Category Leader-Fabric care, P&G) As part of its strategic intent to further grow their consumer base, Ariel has today announced a revamp of their detergent and embarked on a new campaign dubbed #UltimateGuarantee in celebration of 10 years since they entered the Kenyan market. The campaign investment is geared towards supporting Below the Line (BTL) and Above The Line (ATL) activities. Showing great confidence in their new detergent, Ariel is introducing a money back guarantee to boost trial. If a consumer is not satisfied with the new Ariel detergent, the brand will reimburse them. The campaign marks a significant increase in marketing spend on the Ariel brand by its owner, Procter & Gamble (P&G), as it seeks to further cement its leadership position within the laundry market in Kenya. “In a...

(R-L) Dr Moka Lantum (CEO-Sagitarix), Dr Tanvi Sha (CEO & Co-founder-The Pill Shop) and Peter Munyasi (Sanofi Kenya Country Chair and General Manager, GEM) during the launch of the 2019 Vivatech challenge Sanofi, a major player in innovation in Africa, is launching three challenges for African start-ups to find innovative solutions to improve access to healthcare and transform the health ecosystem throughout the continent. These will be pitched at VivaTech, an annual technology conference, dedicated to innovation and startups, held in Paris, France and will take place on May 16th to 18th, 2019. The three challenges aim to identify, select and support the best start-ups in their desire to invent tomorrow's solutions in the health sector on the African continent. They illustrate Sanofi's commitment to contribute locally by supporting the most daring and innovative entrepreneurs in the realization of their projects. These challenges are part of Sanofi's strategy ...

(Left to right) Monica Nyawira Kang’uru, Chamsou D. Andjorin (Director Government Affairs and Market Development, Boeing International Sub-Sahara Africa) and Aogah Winnie Achieng Still in their 20s, Aogah Winnie Achieng and Monica Nyawira Kang’uru , have already managed to work at international corporations’ and with the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority; they have also won an acclaimed competition for young innovators. So it’s no wonder the two Kenyan students caught the attention of Boeing Commercial Airplanes and were selected for its six month International Business Internship Program (IBIP) in Seattle, USA. Launched in 2012, IBIP gives valuable exposure to Boeing’s latest advances in business and technology, with hands-on experience of a variety of disciplines, including business operations, finance, marketing, and strategy in the aviation industry. J. Miguel Santos, Managing Director for Sub-Sahara Africa of Boeing International and Director of International Sales for Boe...

British Airways’ Ksh 0.5 trillion investment plan is delivering dividends for its African customers, with the airline increasing routes and capacity on the continent and introducing new onboard products and services. Most recently it started three flights a week from London Heathrow directly to Durban, South Africa’s largest port city, using one of its newest aircraft, the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner.  The Durban services began just after it added four 787-8 flights a week between London and Johannesburg to complement the existing double-daily A380 schedule. It has also increased its daily Cape Town winter schedule to provide double-daily summer flights from Heathrow as well as offering three weekly flights between Gatwick and South Africa’s Mother City. “With 38 flights a week, this is the most choice and capacity we’ve ever offered between South Africa and the UK,” says Sue Petrie, British Airways’ trade commercial manager for Southern Africa. Other new routes in...

Investors will need to weather more volatility in order to capture opportunities in 2019, according to the Year Ahead report from UBS, the world's leading wealth manager. Global economic growth will decelerate next year to 3.6% from 3.8% in 2018, and company earnings will grow at a slower rate. However, a 2019 recession still looks unlikely, and the price of many financial assets has already moved to reflect uncertain prospects. UBS Global Wealth Management's Chief Investment Office (CIO) enters the year with an overweight position in global equities. However, as the market cycle matures, investors should diversify and hedge their portfolios to guard against volatility as well as political and other risks. They should also take advantage of growth in fields like sustainable and impact investing, and pockets of value where financial asset prices are excessively low. Mark Haefele, Chief Investment Officer at UBS Global Wealth Management, says: "Investors should re...

Most African countries are reported to have a positive economic outlook, apart from those with upcoming elections. This is according to ICAEW’s (the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales) latest report. In Economic Insight: Africa Q4 2018, launched today, the accountancy body provides GDP growth forecasts for various regions including East Africa which is forecast at 6.3%, West and Central Africa as 2.5%, Franc Zone at 4.6%, and Southern Africa at 1.2%. The report underscores political stability as a key economic driver for most African countries. The report, commissioned by ICAEW and produced by partner and forecaster Oxford Economics, provides a snapshot of the region’s economic performance. The regions include; East Africa, West and Central Africa, Franc Zone, Northern Africa, Southern Africa. According to the report, political tensions have had a significant impact on economic growth within the region. Figure 1 : Africa GDP growth by region, 2013-19 ...

From left: Job Wasonga, (Project Manager, CARE International),  Dorothy Nyong'o (First Lady of Kisumu County),  Dorcas Wasonga and Joyce Kariuki (P&G representative) Procter & Gamble (P&G) and Care International celebrated the provision of 71 million litres of clean water to Nyanza, as part of P&G’s Children’s Safe Drinking Water (CSDW) program, on 30 th November at the screening of their Transformation of Water documentary in Kisumu County. They invested over KES 300 million during the program. The program has so far touched 150,000 households in Migori and Siaya and has assisted the Kisumu County Government in flood areas and during cholera outbreaks. “According to water.org, 41%  of  Kenyans still rely on unimproved  water  sources, such as ponds, shallow wells and rivers . Stakeholders in private and public sector need to collaborate to improve this situation. Access to clean water would drastically reduce the number of diarr...

(L to R) Meir Hadassi, CEO Aero CRS with Oliver Dlouhy, CEO, KIWI. COM and Eran Feinstein, CEO DPO Group during a press conference to announce a partnership that will see DPO power payments for the firm DPO Group, the leading payment service provider in Africa, has announced a partnership with Aero CRS (an airline customer reservation system) that will see DPO power all the payments at the back-end ensuring all parties receive their payments in real time. In addition, all the payments from the customer side will be checked by the DPO fraud prevention team in real time. The announcement was made at the Aero CRS network’s annual customer conference held in Nairobi. The Aero CRS Network, which was launched recently, provides a cloud-based platform to help regional and local airlines get more distribution on Online Travel agents (OTAs), meta-searches and different aggregators all over the world. This means that a standard point to point airline, low-cost carrier or charter opera...

PharmAccess, CarePay and Sanofi have announced a new partnership, Ngao Ya Afya (“Shield for Health”). Ngao Ya Afya aims to facilitate access to better diabetes and hypertension care in Kenya through a low cost, mobile technology-enabled model. The partnership is committed to advancing patient access to care and testing new solutions to support government and private payers address healthcare affordability and financing challenges. Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) are the leading cause of death globally, killing 41 million people each year, equivalent to 71% of all deaths globally[1]. NCDs account for 27% of the total deaths and over 50% of total hospital admissions in Kenya[2]. The highest risks of dying from NCDs are in low and middle-income countries (LMIC) – especially sub-Saharan Africa – with 85% of these deaths occurring in LMICs. Worldwide these countries are struggling to scale up NCD response due to lack of funding, staff and infrastructure. This program aims to use mobile t...

Visa, the global payments technology company, has announced a strategic partnership with Halotel to enable Visa on mobile payments on Halotel’s HaloPesa wallet in Tanzania.  The service will be rolled out in early 2019 thereby enabling HaloPesa’s one million registered wallet holders to use Visa on mobile to securely make merchant payments and conduct cash deposits and withdrawals at Visa agents. Any HaloPesa customer, including those who do not have a bank account, will be able to benefit from the solution. The aim is to connect more Tanzanians to the global payment system, bringing secure and convenient mobile commerce for consumers and merchants.  “We are excited about this partnership with a key mobile service provider such as Halotel. Our partnership with Halotel will ensure that Tanzanians can pay using Visa on their mobiles at over 40,000 new retailers. It will also help expand financial inclusion for Tanzanian consumers who will now be able to benefit from pa...