Google discovers the NSE

Google finance has began covering the Nairobi Stock Exchange. It’s still in beta so it can only get better. Some information (mostly company managers) and financials are outdated, and it would be nice to see some blog contributions in addition to the news feeds like at Reuters Africa

Job & numbers

Citizen TV: 000’s are the reasons that several media stars have decamped to Citizen TV. For the KTN crew it was about playing one hose against the other to raise the salary stakes before they moved on, but not for as much as they had hoped. For those left at KTN salary caps are now in order on a take it or leave it basis.

KCB: Deputy CEO Martin Oduor Otieno got elevated to lead KCB this month, despite the KCB board erroneously including a clause that CEO candidates should be under 50 years of age which the new MD is over by about a year.

Jobs available
most from the daily papers in the past week

African Development Bank: Research Economist, Senior Research Economist, Financial Management Specialist, Principal Environmentalist, Senior Gender Specialist, Principal Socio-Economist, Senior Statistician. Apply to recruit@afdb.org by 10/4

Barclays: Direct sales agents (ref: DSA07), direct sales team leader (DSTL07) D/L is 30/3

Brand & technologies limited : managing director, finance manager, commercial manager, logistics manager, procurement manager, internal audit manager, hr & admin manager, ICT manager, brand managers (4). Apply through deloitte at esd@deloitte.co.ke by 6/4

Senior financial planning coordinator at Celtel . Apply to hr@ke.celtel.com by 30/3

I & M Bank : Cashiers/Tellers, IS Security Administrator, ICT Management Trainees, Credit Administration Officer (Securities and Documentation), Credit Administration Officer (System Input and Maintenance), Credit Administration Officer (Monitoring and Control),

Young professionals (10) at KIPPRA. Details online and D/L is 20/4
- Also at KIPPRA - research consultants/associates, research assistant, editorial consultants in field of macroeconomics, productive sector, private sector, social sector, infrastructure & economic service. Apply to eoi@kippra.or.ke by 20/4

Kenya Tea Development Authority: brand executive and a web administrator. Apply to recruitement@ktdateas.com by 10/4

Regional information & communication officer at Oxfam and D/L is 4/4

Senior Manager - Financial Systems & Analysis at Safaricom. D/L is 2/4

Management trainees at the Standard D/L is 11/4

world vision : Africa advocacy director, Africa Christian commitments director, and Africa communications director. Details online and D/L is 13/4
Also National Director, Uganda, Programme Director, North Sudan, Programme Director, Somalia. D/L is 20/4

Easter Tourism

The first of two tourism fairs (the other one is held before the Christmas) was held at Sarit center last weekend. It is meant to cater for the Easter holidays and the low tourist season which runs from around April to July.

With many more airlines flying to Mombasa – Kenya Airways (KQ), Air Kenya, EA Safari, Fly 540, Jetlink, there are fewer bundled packages (air fare, and hotel stay)now offered. Still there was 2 nights at Travelers Hotel (half board) in conjunction with Fly 540 priced at 25,256 shillings ($361) for the low season, compared to 30,800 ($440) in other months. Also Leopard Beach resort which has been rather quiet on the marketing front has re-emerged with more affordable fares - a similar 2 night stay/flight package is priced for Fly 540 (26,540), KQ (26,700 i.e. $381) or Air Kenya (26,520)

There are also quite a few packages to Northern and Western Kenya – places like Baringo, Samburu and Saiwa Swamp (22 km from Kitale) in addition to more foreign packages been sold at the fair with destinations in Ethiopia, Egypt, South Africa, Rwanda (to watch mountain gorillas) and Uganda (the new Kampala Serena), joining the usual Zanzibar and Dubai ones. These included honeymoon trips to the Kampala Serena at $420 per couple for 5 nights and another to Johannesburg & Cape Town for $2,400 per couple.

There were also some youth packages such as 2 nights/3 days camping at Masai Mara or Tsavo at 12,000 shillings ($171) p.p. from silver bird and a schools package (aimed at class trips) from Sarova to Shaba, Lion Hill or the Mara. (priced at about 60% discount)

Finally, Kenya Airways have a midweek to Dubai special at $500 for 2 tickets, while Emirates Airline (who were not at the fair) are said to have $160 ticket to Dubai that is used as a seat filler

Related: A report on the November tourism fair

Looking back on Kengen & Total

Total
In October last year, Total Oil held a cocktail party to reassure shareholders after some dismal 9 month results.

Now that the 2006 results have been finalized, here are some other things shareholders were told at the event.
- Company experienced difficulty with upfront payment of taxes and ineffectiveness at the oil refinery in Mombasa
- Total had made a provision of 100 million shillings for an oil marketing case, but that very day the high court had ruled in their favor.
- The Chairman (Mr. Nguer) promised that the results at the end of the year would be much better than the 9 month ones
More comparisons to Kenol: he said that Kenol share price was 115 shillings in April and 109 on that day in October, while total had similarly changed from 44 to 37/38. He also said that while their operations were down 9%, Kenol’s were down 30%. [Today March 2007 – Kenol is 85 and Total 30]
- Commenting on Mobil oil exit and entry of Tamoil (of Libya) to Kenya, Nguer remarked that the sector was stable but that oil marketing was unique in Kenya and some multi –nationals could not understand this.
- On threats by Minister of Finance to fix oil prices, he said he did not see the country going back on its 1994 deregulation of the sector prices

Kengen
The surprise announcement last week that geothermal development company would be hived off from Kengen prompted a look back at the company’s pre-IPO prospectus. And sure enough in the future outlook for the company, the Kengen prospectus does mention the state will set up a geothermal development company to undertake high risk activities such as exploration and drilling. It will be financed by appropriations from parliament and will take over Olkaria from Kengen

Also that:
- Regulator (ERB?) will be empowered to set the price of fossil fuels bought by Kengen i.e. diesel. This is likely to affect independent power producers.
- New rural electrification authority. Any impact on KPLC?
- Kengen to bill KPLC at 2.36 not 1.76 per kWh which has become a hot button issue in this election year

Sugar crisis countdown

Mumias is Kenya’s main sugar company with diversified operations and whose future plans include ethanol production and electricity generation.

However while they believe they are ready to compete in the future, they worry that other companies and the sector will be negatively affected and could collapse after March 2008 when an import restriction expires - thus allowing unlimited amounts of sugar to be imported duty free from other COMESA COMESA countries.

As such they are commissioning a study (pre-proposals to be sent to the company by 5/4) to see what impact this will have on the sector and calling for urgent action.

Issues they are raising:
- Other countries - Brazil, Pakistan, Australia, Mauritius, SA, Zambia etc. protect their sugar sectors though tariff and other non tariff means like subsidies – so why not Kenya?
- Is the sugar imported from COMESA country Egypt - truly Egyptian in origin? Mumias suspects much of it is dumped from Brazil and under-invoiced by the time it reaches Mombasa. Malawi and Swazi sugar is also suspect.
- The sugar sector has not been supported by in terms of tax breaks, subsidies, infrastructure and incentives like other Kenyan agricultural sectors such as coffee, dairy, tea and livestock. Also, when the sector was liberalized/privatized it was not recapitalized as expected leaving companies with debt burden.
- Does Kenya benefit from COMESA more than it loses by supporting the local sugar industry? What is the value of Kenya exports to / imports from other COMESA countries? Are sugar, ceramic, textiles and rice from Egypt truly Egyptian products. What is the value of exports to COMESA by Kenyan owned companies?
- Ascertain Kenya sugar contribution to the economy in terms of taxes, infrastructure and employment.

For Mumias: It’s troubling that you can but rice from Pakistan at Uchumi or Nakumatt is priced cheaper than the local Mwea rice (which I buy). So what will happen with sugar? The March 2008 date has always been a crucial day for any Mumias shareholder to consider and the company will certainly benefit from a continued exemption. Mumias makes a great deal of mileage as the only widely circulated Kenya branded sugar product – with the connotation of buy Kenyan, your taxes at work etc.

Homeless African Banks

Regional African banking institutions seem to be having some trouble with their host nations.

First it was the African Development Bank which is hosted by Tunisia after war broke out in Ivory Coast. A Wall Street Journal story earlier this month highlighted the dilemma posed by US pressure to have this African Bank hosted in an African, i.e. sub-Saharan country, but at the same time not shut the door on a return to Ivory Coast.

Now it's the African Export-Import Bank which is about to be evicted from Egypt. This stems from a long running dispute when Egypt, upset that one of their own was not elected president of the bank, locked out the incoming president and froze their funding of the bank. Bank shareholders met thereafter and resolved that the election of the president was in order and asked that Egypt accept and respect that decision. Now Egypt has decided to sell their shares in the bank - resulting in the members looking for a new headquarters.

Bad driving Roundup

bad driver Index
The other day I was stuck in a meeting and had a chance to observe traffic at the Kenyatta Avenue /I&M Towers intersection - and realized how bad we are at driving. A few minutes later I was down there myself adding to the chaos nosing a car foot-by-foot through until other driver had to yield.

While the most aggressive drivers appear to be matatus, taxis, citi hoppas, we are all to blame as regular motorists because we are equally bad drivers. Driving along the roadside, changing or creating extra lanes, doing u-turns etc.

Matatu and other bus drivers can get reported by sending an SMS to 2333 and once a month the Ministry of Transport will publish all these offences in a full page spread in the newspaper.

But there’s no mechanism for reporting private motorists or consequence for private bad drivers.
I wish the Ministry would extend the program to private motorists – in conjunction with Safaricom or Celtel – and enable motorists, or pedestrians to report bad driving by any driver. The difference is that only motorists who pile up more than 5 or 10 offences a month (reported by different people) get printed in the paper and asked to appear before the traffic court to answer for driving offences. I wonder how many times I’d appear on that list!

But motoring is only an extension of our aggressive/ rude inconsiderate selves that can be manifested anywhere, not just when driving.

Consider these other examples from a supermarket last weekend;
- Our inability to form a queue. Uchumi has a sign clearly indicating where to line up for bread - but which most customers ignore as they crowd the counter and yell out their orders for hot loaves or croissant
- A man with his kids on his way to a birthday party who pushed a full trolley through the 3 items only aisle. When I asked him if he understood the policy of the aisle, he said he was buying only 3 items – chocolate bar, bag of sweets, and balloons - but 10 of each item which unfortunately also had to be rung up separately by the cashier!
- Another day, a lady with her young daughter who paid for her items only to realise that her young daughter had picked out the wrong type of lotion. But instead of dealing with it later, she shoved a 1,000 shilling note at the cashier and dashed back into the supermarket to pick up the correct bottle – leaving five of us in the 3 items express queue also waiting to be served. To add insult to the matter she bumped into an old friend and had a chat for a minute while the rest of us stood and muttered insults under our breath.

Enough about that.

Airlines
Just about 20 months ago we marvelled at Kenya Airways whose share price had just shot up into the 60's - before it went on to hit 140 and settle around 120 shillings a share. At the same time Richard Branson was setting up a Virgin partnership in Nigeria and the first scheduled airline services were resuming to the Sudan

Today, Kenya Airways share price is back in the 60's, Virgin Atlantic's boss is here to firm up his launch plans for the Virgin Airline and there seems to be a new airline to the Sudan every month.

Francis Thuo
Today, March 21, marks the deadline for investors and creditors of Francis Thuo Stockbrokers to have filed their claims with the statutory manager.

Busy paper pushers
There are people employed at organizations whose job is to align their organizations to the national goals of the day. Like chameleons, they alter their corporate objectives, mission, and policies to ensure they are aligned to ensure 10% economic growth, millennium development goals(MDGs), zero based budgeting, and now Visions 2030 etc. Also in a touch of electioneering they have been asked to mention what constituency any/all their operations are - which will no doubt end up in a little booklet that will be dished out by November.

More media
Amid the changes at KTN comes a new television station to Kenya with a twist: first to broadcast vernecular language

Finally
driving horror tale A bank manager parked his luxury car on the street during the daytime and came back to collect it at about 8 p.m. He entered and drove towards home along well-lit streets till near Westland's when he noticed that he couldn't see the road very well. He parked at a petrol station and got out - only to find that his car had no headlights. They had all been removed by street boys back in town, and he had blissfully driven this far courtesy of Adopt-a-light streetlights.

Drummond Investment Bank

Yes, the beleaguered stockbroker Francis Drummond is now Drummond Investment Bank as per the latest licensee list from the equally occupied Capital Markets Authority.

Other Notes
- Zimele has two new unit trusts – a balanced and a money market fund
- Suspended Francis Thuo is now missing from the list of stockbrokers, but so is Faida Securities. Is that an omission?
- Uchumi advisers Royal – who later became Amana, are missing as are B A fin. Mgmt and Interglobal who have officially been deregistered. Meanwhile Inter Alliance International are new investment adviser
- Equity Bank now joins the list of authorized depositories

Safaricom Valuation?
The government has valued the 9% of Safaricom shares pledged to banks who advanced a bridging finance loan to restructure Telkom Kenya at 5.835 billion - placing the whole company’s valuation at about 64.83 billion shillings ($926) million and second to EABL at about $1.4 billion)

Edit: Allowing for banks discounting the shares at 60 - 70% of nominal value, puts the value of the company at between 92 and 108 billion shillings.

Giving banks a legal hand

The judiciary has been the bane of banks, taking forever to get things cleared. You can apply for a case against a debtor today and be told the next hearing date available is in 2008.

Smething is very wrong when a case can’t be heard for almost ten months. There’s enough blame to go round – complex cases heard using archaic processes, too few judges, judges who take too long to clear cases, lazy/crafty lawyers who seek postponement for any reason to keep cases going on forever etc.

The Chief Justice tried to give a helping hand in his gazette notice to stop one delaying avenues where matters relating to a case are presented in different courtrooms around the country.

The most visible case has been the ongoing Charterhouse Bank saga which has been in court houses in Nairobi, Malindi and Eldoret leading to conflicting legal positions.

jobs

from the daily papers last week
- Accountant at Bakri international (oil company). Apply to bakri@accesskenya.co.ke by 25/3
- Senior associate at Creative Associates International. Apply to recruitment@caii.com by 23/3
Ernst & Young: tax trainees and an accountant. Apply to Eyrecruitment@ke.ey.com by 30/3
- Huawei: transmission engineer, wireless engineer, and intelligent network engineer. Apply to kenya@huawei.com by 30/3
- Communications specialist at ILRI. Apply to recruit-ilri@cgiar.org b 30/3
- Property manager at international house limited. Apply to jobs@ihlkenya.com by 26/3
- KPMG: audit manager (AM-07), senior internal auditor & internal auditors (IAS-07), tax manager (TM-07) and tax consultants (TC-07). Apply to esd@kpmg.co.ke by 30/3
- Cluster manager at millennium villages. Millennium Promise is a partnership of the Earth Institute (Columbia University) and the World Agro forestry center. Apply to j.morabu@cgiar.org by 30/3
- National Oil Corp of Kenya: depot accountants (Nakuru & Eldoret), and a credit controller. Apply to hr@nockenya.co.ke by 29/3
- National coordinator - African peer review mechanism at NEPAD Kenya secretariat. Apply to jobs.ke@undp.org by 23/3
- Business development manager at Savings & Loan (KCB subsidiary).
- Financial management specialist at the World Bank. Kenya. Details and apply online by 30/3. Also financial management consultants (6 month and 12 month) – D/L is 11/4
- World Vision>: ICT manager at world vision, Manager - KUTER initiative, and (RMB/IMCI) program officer. Apply to recruit_kenya@wvi.org by 30/3

Money Transfer within Kenya - Part II

Part I has come to pass with Safaricom’s new M-Pesa service enabling money transfer via cell phone.

Mzansi Kenya: The new technology does not pose a threat to banks as it operates outside banking circles. What banks should look out for is a populist attempt introduce mzansi style banking as they continue to report super profits year after year which are unfairly attributed to excessive fees they levy on their customers.

Visa, watch out: The next group to watch out for what's happening at Safaricom should be Visa and other credit card manufactures in Africa. Cell phone airtime is virtual money - which is what debit and credit cards are - enabling customers and merchants to exchange virtual payments settled days later - at a substantial fee to both parties.

With cell phones this is already happening but it's just not formalized. The Option - Safaricom's free magazine publication has a letter to the editor this month from Joe Nickson of Kerugoya (central Kenya) who paid his fare in a matatu (bus) by transferring 50 shillings airtime to the conductor's phone and he received 30 shillings actual cash as change.

Airtime offers many more possibilities - 7 million cell phone (including more post-paid cell phone customers) vs. 100, 000 credit card users in Africa. Alongside his credit card terminal, a merchant can have a terminal with a dedicated cell phone line to receive virtual payments of airtime from safaricom users making small purchases. At the end of the day, he'll be able to check his virtual balance - and either re-sell the airtime to customers or use it to purchase other goods.

Another advantage of cell phone payments is they require no background checks or credit history.

Could Safaricom go to a higher level and enable online payments to enable their subscribers to buy over the web and pay by transfering payments to a website like Mamamikes or is that already happening?

Nation Business Daily

The Nation Media Group started publishing the new business daily on Wednesday March 7.

It was first mentioned at the Nation AGM in May 2006 and it hits the streets just three months after a new look Nation was published on December 1.

I hope they consulted their readers like the Wall Street Journal did before they also made changes last year. The WSJ is one of the few to increase subscribers (10%) at a time when most newspapers and magazines are experiencing declines.

Newspaper affordability
Three days out and I am one of the few who has bought all issues so far at 50 shillings ($0.70) each. I don't expect to be a long-term customer since I can read most of the stories I see online at their site or elsewhere (feeds of WSJ online). But if one is not net savvy, the stories are new and different. However I expect that it's only a matter of time before the stories also become subscriber only like the rest of Nation magazines

I have no loyalty to papers to buy, two on Sunday and either Nation or Standard on any other day depending on which is more appealing (preferably less party politics). Like many (cheap) Kenyans I buy one and get a free newspaper i.e. in exchange for buying a paper, the vendor allows me flip through the Nation or Standard (which are sold for 35/= or $0.50 on week days) before I decide which one to buy. The arrival of the business daily shakes up my vendor's math - and he's taking a few days to judge the demand /sort out his orders (he sells 50 Nation and 20 Standard) to motorists as he jogs round traffic jams. He doesn't understand why the Business Daily was launched, and though he has sold out his few copies, he grumbles that it will reduce his sales of the Nation (which is twice the size but costs 30% less than the B.Daily)

business without politics?
Is there enough business news to put out a daily newspaper? Yes there is... we all say we are tired of the media obsessing with politics and politicians. But the Nation already has about half its papers with comprehensive business magazines (Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday- and the East African on Monday). The Standard has also has a business magazine on Monday & Tuesday, (stopped publishing an Executives magazine on Wednesday) as well as a focus on the transportation industry on Thursday. Also the Kenya Times has comprehensive business writing each week day and it the only newspaper still has all its business stories online free.

Still when you look at the papers the business daily is emulating - Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, or even the economist, they all have comprehensive political coverage because you can't separate politics from the world economy. E.g. you can't talk about Airbus problems and future without mentioning the interests/wishes of the French government and also understand what the presidential candidates in France have said and in the same way you can't talk about the issues at KPLC, Kengen, and EAPC without understanding their status as parastatals that are influenced by the politics of government.

tweaking
Some things I'd like to see if asked
- More risk/breaking stories. NTV reporter Robert Nagila has spent a few months doing an expose on dubious procurement contract at a cement company that have been the lead story on NTV news at 9 p.m. several times. But the Daily Nation has not published these findings comprehensively (maybe fear of lawsuits) even as management of the company have paid for rebuttal statements to run in the Nation. The WSJ goal of having 80% exclusive content shoul be aimed for.
- Some signature writers - like the East African has regular columnists with interesting observation and opinions. who also writes for nation, standard has battery who normally write on politics.
- Give an MD a column each week to write about business, economy, investments etc. anything excepttheir company or industry. This should not be an interview and encourage them to make it a personal piece, not a PR team effort
- Index of people names in addition that of companies on page 2.
- Cartoon like the Boondocks, crosswords, advertisements
- More contributor content; this is not easy to manage but newspapers should not wish away their readers contributions. Newspapers often make reference to reports or features and liberally borrow material that appear in blogs or "Kenyan websites" as a by the way without mentioning what they are. e.g. interest rate or stockbroker woe tales.

Future Outlook
The Business Daily, priced at 50 shillings should be a test balloon of the market. Nation executives have often stated that they wish to increase the price of the paper to offset increased production costs. That sometime in 2005/06 both nation and standard increased the price of their Saturday paper from 35 to 40 on the same day was not a coincidence.

By combining both the Business Daily (as Section B of the Daily Nation) they can go ahead and raise the price of daily paper to 50 or 55 shillings and still not lose readers to the competition.

News

marshals: With no big pickup, SUV, or affordable small cars from Peugeot to sell, the company is cutting back - they have moved from their Sarit center showroom as well as marshals house site (used to be showroom, and workshop) on harambee avenue which has now been advertised for rent now its owner - the central bank staff pension fund who also have put up a new office block opp. Yaya center in Kilimani

billionaire's hotel: Flavio Briatore, the Renault F1 team boss will open a luxury beach resort in Malindi later this year.

soccer dream alive: breathing a sigh of relief at the lifting of the FIFA ban on Kenya will be UAP Insurance and its policy holders who have invested in world cup savings plan - but who may had had a difficult time obtaining match tickets as FIFA would not have allocated Kenya a quota to sell.

go zero: Safaricom has often been asked about why it hoards your 10 shillings (phone balance never went below 10 shillings) but they have now removed that floor and subscribers can now talk/SMS their way down to 1 shilling.

new airline Virgin Atlantic starts flights to Kenya on June 1 and the airline is seeking airline call center & ticketing agents, call center/ticketing supervisor, turnaround coordinators, area sales executives and airport duty managers to apply online for jobs by 18/3

other opportunities

Bidco: team leaders (finance & accounts) accountants (Jinja) , cost accountant head communications & PR, marketing officers, head(s) export sales & distribution, regional head(s) sales & distribution, territory sales supervisors, area - sales in charge, head - logistics, head - purchase, engineers, graduate trainee engineers, ICT systems analysts and others. Apply to careers1@bidco-oil.com by 19/3

Equity Bank: relationship managers, customer service representatives. Apply to jobs@ebsafrica.co.ke by 23/3

Emirates airlines cabin crew. Apply online by 1/4

Erastus & Co CPA: audit associates (2), auditor seniors (2) tax & service supervisor. Apply to erastus@nbnet.co.ke by 20/3

regional sales representatives at Jamii. D/L is 20/3

Market research & planning manager at KCB. apply to Divisional director HR 48400-00100 by 19/3

managing director at Kenya film corporation apply through manpower & associates by 23 /3

media edge: client service executives, editor, and creative graphic designers. Apply to info@mediaedgeint.com by 14/3

grants officer at save the children. apply to vacancies@scuk.or.ke by 21/3

branch manager at Southern credit bank. apply to hr@southerncredit.co.ke by 21/3

world bank Somalia community driven recovery /& development t (CDR/CDD) project: civil engineering officer, monitoring & evaluation officer, and coordinator CDR/CDD project. Apply online by 21/3

grants accountant at world vision south Sudan. apply to recruitsdn@wvi.org by 19/3

scholarships: Chinese / Kenya government scholarships - undergraduate (12), post graduate (10) - full scholarships (inclusive of air travel).. D/L is 15/3 to the PS Ministry of Education

media awards. Marekebisho awards from GJLOS - open only to journalists why? who work for media houses. Three awards each for print (local, regional or national newspaper) and electronic (local, national, regional TV/radio) journalists for work they publish between January 1 and May 31 2007. D/L is 31/5

10 shilling shares

The recent surge of share splits was unjustified based on the overall trading history of the companies. So it’s only a matter of time before some of these shares dip to their pre-split / hype prices. Any share that was trading for less than 100 shillings in the last 18 months is a candidate for correction – to the below 10 shillings mark and that includes CMC, ICDCI, and Sasini.

IPO’s
Now that a few IPO’s have passed, but not their euphoria, it is apparent that investment advisors of future IPO's will have to rework their calculations to satisfy institutional and seasoned retail investors. While government divestment offers will be geared to the mwananchi, smaller private companies will have to ask themselves if by offering IPO shares at about 10/= each, they want to be like Eveready or Scangroup and end up with up with 100,000 shareholders who own 100 – 200 shares each.

Rising shareholder costs
- Kengen told us their 2006 annaul general meeting (AGM) - after the IPO would 80 million shillings and another post IPO company Firestone will have their AGM in Nakuru on March 22 (where fewer shareholders can attend).
- With over 175,000 new shareholders, the cost to Eveready of even inviting all their new owners to the AGM is quite prohibitive - mailing out accounts & AGM notices would cost about 4 million shillings ($63,500) [i.e. 175,000 letters X 25 shillings postage per letter]. So Firestone shareholders will also be asked to approve a change in company articles to allow such notices to be sent by e-mail or fax.
- The same postage costs will apply when Eveready mail out their dividend cheques. Since most shareholders have the minimum 100 shares, they will receive payment cheques of Kshs 60. which is hardly justified when you factor in bank & postage charges
- Also to cut costs, the company has sent out slimmed down accounts that are about the size of the president's speech on Jamhuri day.
- On a positive note, Kengen have made an arrangement with (their bankers) KCB so that shareholders can cash their Kengen dividend cheques at any KCB branch at no cost.

Alternative investments
KTN had a story on Friday about the Central Bank (CBK) crackdown on pyramid schemes - and it was followed by a poll on whether they should be banned. The result was 16% YES, 84% NO (i.e. they should not be banned.) Though unscientific, you sense from the poll that these schemes have become lifelines/shortcuts to riches for a diverse variety of Kenyans.

In fact many of these schemes have been shut down at the urging of commercial banks – who have had to deal with swelling crowds in their banking halls – either depositing or receiving cash in the merry go rounds. Some of these investors blame jealousy from banks (who want to hold their money and give out as loans) and the Nairobi stock exchange for putting pressure on the CBK to act (since they have been selling shares to re-invest in these quick cash back avenues with guaranteed returns.

Improved opportunities for graduates

Two years ago I placed small advertisement in the newspaper to fill a secretarial vacancy. Twice after that, the job holders found better jobs, so I had to do it again - a year ago, and also this February. Within a week of each advert, almost twenty applications were received.

Two years ago, almost all applicants were university graduates; for the second ad, about 2/3 who responded were graduates and this time - of the 20 applicants received in the first week, only half were university graduates. Does this mean that there are better opportunities for graduates? Or they feel better about their prospects that they won't accept an entry-level job these days. Good times and more opportunities I hope for them

The results of this were a quick experiment. But a caution here; if you apply to a job at high profile company, it may take up to two months (or never) to be called in for an interview or sent a regret e-mail.

jobs
from the daily papers

African development bank (ADB) (Nairobi): Macroeconomist, agriculture expert, infrastructure specialist, procurement assistant, disbursement assistant, IT & telecommunications assistant, administrative & financial assistant. Apply to the resident representative, Kenya country office 4861-00200 Nairobi

Alliance for a green revolution in Africa (AGRA) [ supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates and Rockefeller foundations]: - which will be headquartered in Nairobi, and program operations will be implemented by a supporting organization - program for a green revolution Africa (ProGRA) - also to be based in Nairobi
Executive director, evaluation & learning officer, program officer(for education & training for crop improvement), director for strategy & learning, program officer (for crop genetic improvement & farmer variety adoption), program officer for (agro-dealer development) [2 positions], policy officer, communications officer, program officer (financing seed production systems) apply through KPMG Kenya at agra@kpmg.co.ke by 23/3

Software developers at credit reference bureau Africa (CRB Africa) . Apply online by 31/3

Senior program officer Kenya at DFID. Apply through adept systems recruit@adeptsystems.co.ke by 14/3

Kenya Anti Corruption Commission: Accountant, forensic investigator III (tax expert), forensic investigator III (audit expert). Apply to the director 61130-00200 by 16/3
Related - the Kenya Revenue Authority is hiring detector dog instructors and detector dog handlers. D/L is 23/3

Nairobi Java House limited: general manager, coffee division manager, and HR manager. Apply to hr@nairobijavahouse.com by 14/3

Safaricom: Simu Ya Jamii Area Manager, Simu Ya Jamii Administrator, Network Monitoring Centre (Nmc) Shift Technician, Senior Tax Accountant, Principal ERP Developer, Principal Business Analyst, Data Services Planning Technician, NMC SSS Senior Engineer-OM Senior CRM System Developer. Apply online

Serena hotels: marketing manager, e-Commerce Manager, sales executive, IS Manager (Kigali) and sous chefs. Apply though Hawkins associates - hawkins.asssociates@khigroup.com by 14/3

other bits of news

advertising Capital FM (98.4) are for the second year running their Image plus promotion that offers medium size companies 120 30 second radio advertisements over the course of one year for about 1.4 million shillings – inclusive of production costs.

affirmative action: In public procurement & disposal, preference will be given to local contractors & suppliers exclusively for goods/supply contracts of less than 50 million shillings ($710,000)shillings and Kshs. 200 million ($2.85 million) for works procurement.
- Bidders will also enjoy a margin of preference of 15% if supplies used are sourced in Kenya
- Bidders will also enjoy a margin of preference of 6% where local shareholding is less than 20% and 5% for shareholding between 20% and 50%

aviation tourism revival continues with airline licenses renewed for air Italy, Neos, Livingston, (Italy - Mombasa / Zanzibar), Fischer (Poland - Mombasa), Malav (Hungary - Mombasa), and Edelweiss (Switzerland - Mombasa)

coffee: An expo will be held on March 8th at Serena - facilitated by the export promotion council

housing: the government will put up 400 mixed housing units in Mlolongo - Athi river Kenya slum upgrading network in conjunction with UN Habitat (Mavoko for middle and low income housing)

investor seminar: Strathmore University – SIFE Team will hold an investment conference dubbed Smart NSE Investments 2007 on Saturday, 3rd March 2007 from 8:30am – 4pm at the university auditorium. Charges are KSh.100 (Exclusive of Lunch)

media training: The 5th Eastern Africa Media Training conducted the Inter Region Economic Network (IREN) will take place in Nairobi between March 14 - 16

security: serious stuff on the Somalia Coast where another ship (MV Rozen) was hijacked by pirates this week
- Kenya to buy patrol boats to secure the waters of Kenya and the port of Mombasa
- (kizingiti, siyu, mokowe, kiwayu) patrol bases in Lamu have been upgraded to be police stations