AfDB at 50

The African DevelopmentBank (AfDB) celebrates it’s 50th anniversary this year with special events that coincide the with banks annual general meetings in Rwanda. Ahead, of that, there was a breakfast event in Nairobi today to share highlights of AfDB’s first 50 years and it’s plans for the next half century.

Some comments: 

Gabriel Negatu (Regional Director of the bank’s East Africa resource centre)

• The bank now has an AAA rating, and capital of $103 billion, half of which is subscribed by non-regional members (the latest being Luxembourg)
• The bank has lent over $100 billion with the bulk of that going to infrastructure (over 40% through water, energy, transport, ICT), then finance and agriculture (12% each) 
• Kenya became a member in 1967, and since then AfDB  has provided support worth $3.1 billion ($1.3 billion to the public sector via 28 projects like the Thika Highway and the Mombasa-Addis road)  and over $1 billion to the private sector (through financing projects like LakeTurkana Wind) 
• Their current funding is via the AfDB, an AfDB fund (non-concessional) and a Nigeria Trust Fund, but they plan another $100 billion fund to further unlock Africa’s growth.
• Lamented that while the bank has helped Africa reduce the number of it’s population who lived below $1.25 per day, that achievement has been compromised by the continent raid population growth. Also that none of the 50 top countries in the world were from Africa, and none of the top 50 in Africa were from East Africa!

Michael Kamau (Cabinet Secretary in the Ministry of Transportation - and architect of the Thika Highway project) 

• Noted that the AfDB had free learning resource center in Upper Hill Nairobi that more Kenyans should visit and utilize
• He did the concept Thika Highway with Donald Kaberuka at Serena hotel - and that later became his job to do. It turned out to be a difficult project that had many challenges including resettlement of people & infrastructure (did Kenya Power overcharge for moving poles/line?), and working with no Nairobi City Council plans/maps of laid services. But he said if they waited for perfect circumstances to do the highway project ,it would never have happened (and his job was on the line) . 
• He expects similar challenges to arise as they start the expansion of 13 kilometers of Nairobi’s Outer Ring Road which also has a common African problem of dealing with people who politicians have encouraged to settle on road space - but notes that AfDB sticks around unlike other financiers who get cold feet in such circumstances.
• He said AfDB is sometimes a better mediator of country relations than the Ministry of Foreign Affairs - noting that under the bank's regional connectivity initiative they have done a lot like arranging for delegations of Kenya and Ethiopia to travel to Tunis and meet at the AfDB meet with special sessions where road, power, border point agreements were finalized. Similar connectivity projects are on-going via AfDB supported roads between Kenya and Tanzania, including one between Holili, Tanzania and Taveta Kenya which when is actually the shortest route  to connect to Burundi and South Rwanda.
• - AfDB also quickly mobilized funding for the construction of temporary terminal at Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta airport after fire destroyed a large part of the airport in 2013.

Idea Exchange: Bank, Literature, Journalism, Opportunities, and Win a Free Phone

The Africa AgriBusiness Challenge from Enactus Kenya and Syngenta seeks out youth to generate creative business ideas to improve the agricultural productivity of certain crop value chains. Deadline is June 10.

The 2014 Africa Awards for Entrepreneurship will have five awards to celebrate entrepreneurs at different stages of the entrepreneurial life cycle; lifetime achievement, transformational business, outstanding mature business, outstanding growing business and outstanding social entrepreneur.

The Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation. Details here .. via @calestous.

@AfriCOG Investigative Journalism Fellowship Programme 2014. Deadline is 30 May. 

Anthemis Fellowship seeks out entrepreneurs, executives and thought leaders who are passionate about building an improved financial services industry fit for the digital age. The Anthemis Fellowship program includes 4 months at the Anthemis London office, 4 months with one of their portfolio companies and 4 months with a major financial services firm. It also comes with a monthly stipend of EUR2000 and an invitation to attend the Anthemis #HackingFinance Retreat from July 10-13, 2014 in Meribel, France. Deadline is June 1. 

@APO_Source has had a scholarship for an African journalist to to attend the 2014 annual meetings of the African Development Bank.

Bloomberg Africa ‏@BBGAfrica - seeks Swaziland, Eritrea, Djibouti, G.Bissau, Cape Verde, Eq. Guinea, Sao Tome stringers - Please e-mail asguazzin@bloomberg.net

Citi Africa Management Associate Programme Citi in Africa is  looking for ambitious graduates with strong academic backgrounds, maximum of two years’ work experience, leadership, teamwork, and excellent communication skills.

The 2014 CNN/MultiChoice African Journalist Awards will recognise excellence in culture, economics & business (NEW), energy & infrastructure (NEW), environment, health & medical, news impact (NEW), photography, press freedom, sports, language general news, Francophone news and also Portuguese news. Details here and the deadline is 30 May.

EABL Foundation scholarships for needy students who have gained admission to Kenya public universities. Deadline is June 6. 

Etisalat Prize 2014 for African literature is now open with a top prize of £15,000 and a fellowship at the University of East Anglia, while winner and shortlisted writers also receive a sponsored two city tour promoting their books. Details here and the deadline is 8 August.

The Golden Baobab Prizes for Literature include awards for a picture Book (targeting readers aged 6 – 8 years), early chapter (targeting readers aged 9 -11) and rising writers (for a young African author under the age of 18 who demonstrates the talent and drive to become the next great African author for children). Details here and the deadline is June 29.

Jalada / @KwaniTrust seek 3 best Afrofuture submissions for a second anthology. Deadline is D/L 15

Japan Government scholarships  in research, teacher training, technology, and specialized training .. via @njathika

Want to be a Jameson brand ambassador? Here's how to apply (via @uqweli ) oops - deadline also passed.

KCB: The region's largest bank has ongoing internships, management trainee and management exchange programs. Sourced from @RookieKE blog.

 

Kenya Revenue Authority -  KRA graduate trainee program 2014

The Kenya StartUp Cup is open to all Kenyan youth entrepreneurs who can apply to win Kshs 1 million (~$11,500). Details from the @prepaid_africa blog and the deadline is May 20.

KenyaTop100 seeks successful companies with turnover of Kshs 70 million to Kshs 1 billion (~$12,000)  with 3 years audited accounts to compete and be among @kenyastop100 

Kijabe Forest Trust @KijabeForest  is seeking a new logo design.

Kuona Trust has internship opportunities for students at their offices in Hurlingham, Nairobi. 

The Kwani Trust 2014 fiction workshop seeks to develop new contemporary fiction writers between the ages of 18 and 24 and from outside of Nairobi. To apply, check the website, and send email to submissions_at_kwani.org by May 26.

Orange  has launched the 4th edition of the Orange African Social Venture Prize which will award prizes to four projects; three with grants of 10,000 EUR, 15,000 EUR and 25,000 EUR, and a new special prize of 10,000 EUR. It's open to all entrepreneurs or legal entities that has been in existence for fewer than three years at the time of the competition and the deadline is 19 September.

Power Africa Off Grid Energy Challenge from @USADF and @GeneralElectric Africa offers up to $100,000 to 100% African owned and African managed firms that seek to power up under-served parts of rural Kenya. Deadline is June 20.  

School of Data: Become a School of Data Fellow as they are currently broadening their efforts to spread data skills around the world, and are seeking people who are data savvy, understand the role of NGO's, are interested or experienced in working with journalism and/or civil society, or enjoy community-building.  Deadline is 1 June.

Standard Chartered Bank Fast Track Program: The bank is looking for young graduates to join their management trainee program in several African countries, including Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Uganda, and several international locations. Sourced from @RookieKE blog

 
The Stanford University Africa MBA Fellowship Program pays for tuition and associated fees (approximately US $145,000) for citizens of African countries with financial need who wish to obtain an MBA at Stanford GSB. Stanford will award up to eight Stanford Africa MBA Fellowships annually. Details here and the deadline is 13 June.

Strathmore University @StrathU scholarships from @imbankke for 10 needy students pursuing various Finance related degree programmes.

Swedish Institute Management Programme‏ The Swedish Institute is launching a new leadership programme for progressive leaders from Kenya,Tanzania, Rwanda, Ethiopia and Zambia - offering a combination of theory and practice in the area of responsible leadership and sustainable business.  Details here and the deadline is June 6.

Total Kenya Graduate Management Trainee Program. The company was is looking for young dynamic graduates.  Also sourced from @RookieKE blog but the deadline was 7 May  

The Wall Street Journal @WSJ looking for entrepreneurial reporter to cover the most entrepreneurial of Africa beats--business, from Nairobi. Apply to @pwonacott

Submit your wikimedia proposals to be included at Wiki Indaba 2014 in Johannesburg. Details here and the deadline is 15 May.

The World Bank Young Professionals Program 2014 seeks highly qualified and motivated individuals skilled in areas relevant to the World Bank’s operations such as, economics, finance, education, public health, social sciences, engineering, urban planning, and natural resource management. Details here and the deadline is 30 June.

 
Win a Nokia Lumia 1320: There are very few comments on the blog here despite the number of daily readers, and many of the comments are from spammers promoting products from far off countries. To stimulate comments, I’m giving away a brand new Nokia Lumia 1320 phone (worth about $400/Kshs 35,000) to the person who engages the most on the site. The phone was an excellent, but unexpected, prize awarded to the winner of the best business blog at the recent 2014 Kenya Blog Awards ceremony. During the month of May, readers to the blog and it's archives, can make as many comments as they want, and I'll respond on some. 

Rules 
1. There are no rules about winning.
2. It's about serious comments, not volume - and blog comments only, not tweets/tags

3. This is personal, and the promo has nothing to do with Nokia  or Nokia East Africa.

4. @Coldtusker is excluded :(
5. An announcement will be made on June 14, and there may not be a winner  if no one is deemed to be worthy.

Financing Lake Turkana Wind

Monday this saw the signing of final agreements for the financing of the Lake Turkana Wind Power - LTWP project. This was the completion of a long, 9 year process that began with a fishing on trip on Lake Turkana, that yielded no fish, but a lot of wind on boat trip. 

The signing of finance deals worth 498 million euros (~ Kshs. 60 billion), will go towards LTWP which at Kshs. 75 billion is arguably both, the largest single wind power plant in Africa and, the largest single private investment in Kenya. 

The  Kenya Government has committed to raise the country’s electricity generation capacity to 5,538MW (from the current 1,533MW) by the year 2017. 630MW of that will be from wind, and they they have identified five strong wind areas in Ngong, Turkana, Kinangop, Kipeto and Isiolo - and hopes that using renewable sources of energy like wind will bring down the cost of electricity to consumers, and save on fuel import costs for the country.

The government’s KETRACO agency will build a 428 kilometer, 400 kV line, from Loyangalani to Suswa Suswa to Laisamis that they say will be ready in 24 months and which will also  link up with geothermal plants along the way. 

Image from LTWP website

The LTWP which will generate 300 MW, using 365 turbines in Laisamis (Marsabit) was registered in 2006, and brought one Aldwych International as an investment and development partner in 2009.

Financiers in LTWP include the African Development Bank (AfDB are the lead arrangers and who have provided a guarantee against some delays have also financed $1.7 billion in power generation in Africam with 39% iof that going to private sector companies) the European Investment Bank. Standard Bank (Stanbic), FMO, Nedbank, EADB, PTA, PKF, DEG, Proparco and soon OPIC (US)

Other partners in LTWP include Vestas (turbine supplier), the governments of Denmark (proving EUR 135 million including 120m in export credits), Netherlands, and Spain (who are financing the Laisamis- to Suswa transmission line).  

Next, the Kenya government wants to expand the number of last mile electricity connection while KETRACO also plan to extend the transmission lines to Northern and North Eastern Kenya - and on to Ethiopia, Tanzania and Uganda. This will serve the regional transmission purposes and also open up northern Kenya.

Joseph Njoroge,  the Energy principal secretary, said additional electricity opens up opporutunies such as enabling the pumping of crude oil, the Standard Gauge Railway is also planned to use electric trains, Iron Smelting, as well as clinker production (by Athi River and Dangote.

Idea Exchange: Barcamps, Heineken, Nuclear, Authors, Pilots, Blog Awards

New, ongoing, and concluded opportunities.

Acumen Fund is accepting applications for the next class of the Regional Fellows Program in East Africa, in Pakistan, and now India. Deadline is 2 September 2013.

The Africa Awards for Entrepreneurship recognize and award exceptional entrepreneurial leaders who serve as role models to Africa's aspiring entrepreneurs and demonstrate business excellence, innovation and profitability. This year there will be prizes for (a) lifetime achievement award,  transformational business, outstanding mature business, outstanding small and growing business, and one for an outstanding social entrepreneur - that will range from $50,000 to $100,000 each.  The Awards are supported by the Omidyar Network, and the deadline is July 18.

The African Business Awards competition is now open and there will be winners ins categories of African Business of the Year, Business Leader of the Year, Award for Good Corporate Governance, Award for Innovation and Outstanding Woman in Business. The deadline is is August 5 and more details are here. 

Barcamp Nairobi  is set for 24August, 2013 and more details are here.

East African Breweries Foundation has university scholarships.

Enactus Kenya (formerly SIFE Kenya) stages the 2013 National Business and Entrepreneurship competition on  July 20, 2013 in Nairobi, and will choose a champion who will represent Kenya at the Enactus World Cup in Cancun Mexico. 

Advertising, media and risk jobs at Equity Bank

Heineken is seeking premium distributors in Kenya and entrepreneurs needs to have vehicles, sales person and Kshs 5 million ($60,000) in working capital to be eligible.

Highway Africa 2013 takea place at Rhodes University, South Africa in September and will have new media awards for innovative newsroom, best African ICT Blog and (most) innovative use of technology for community engagement. Deadline is July 31.

Magadi Soda is seeking graduate engineer trainees and the deadline is 20 July 2013

The Mo Ibrahim Foundation and Global Integrity, who are embarking on a partnership to prepare the African Integrity Indicators (AII) 2013-2014, are seeking teams of journalists, and researchers experts across Africa to conduct original research and gather data that will feed into the Ibrahim Index of African Governance.

The Mo Ibrahim Foundation Leadership Fellowship Program which closed on July 16, will place winners to work at African Development Bank offices for 12 months 

Morland Writing Scholarships are grants of £18,000, paid monthly over the course of one year to winners selected who submit a published works of between 2,000 and 7,000 words for evaluation. The Scholarship is intended for writers who want to write a full-length book of 80,000 words or more and the deadline for the first series is October 31. 

Poland is selling an Embassy property in Nairobi for $3.5 million. The deadline for bids is August 21, 2013.

Rhodes Scholarship Kenya applications are open till August 31.

RwandAir, hiring young and qualified Rwandans to be sent for Pilot training in Ethiopia. Deadline (was) July 15. 

Top50at50: The Business Daily Africa newspaper is seeking to recognize the top fifty year old leaders in business to coincide with Kenya’s 50th year of independence.

The University of Nairobi has received 15 scholarships from the Kenyan government that will be availed to Kenyans who want  to pursue masters degrees in Nuclear Science - and the deadline for applications is July 31.

The University has also partnered with theNational Oil Corporation  to build capacity in petroleum research and development through a management trainee program. 

The USAID DIV seeks applicants with innovative ideas that address development challenges more efficiently and cost-effectively than the competition, and that have the potential to scale to reach millions of beneficiaries. Deadline is August 15.  

The World Bank's InfoDev mAgri challenge aims to identify entrepreneurs developing innovative mobile agri apps in Africa, and provide them with additional resources to further commercialize their products. Deadline is August 15.

Zara: Fashion Stylists drawn from local media houses will  battle on July 28.

Opportunities from Austria, Kofi Annan, Orange, Wellcome, and Georgetown University that were posted earlier are still open and here's a nice link to other useful opportunities for advancement.

Idea Exchange: Opportunities Galore: Blogs, Dust, Eggs, Interns, PhD’s, Oil, Social Media, Weddings

Some open opportunities to apply for; 

(Edit) African Banker Awards: The 2013 African Banker Awards competition is now on. Winners will be selected in categories of  African bank, African banker, best bank (in North Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, West Africa, Central Africa regions),  retail bank,  investment bank , most innovative bank, socially responsible bank,  financial inclusion award, investment fund/private equity fund,  deal of the year, mortgage bank/product,  and brokerage house of the year. Deadline is 11 March.

African Development Bank: 2013 Internship Programme Session 2 - Provides students with an opportunity to acquire professional and practical experience at the African Development Bank and the Bank with a pool of potential candidates for future recruitment purposes.

Also, the #AfDB's Regional Integration Dept is seeking junior consultants. Apply now.

PhD Fellowships from the African Economic Research Consortium  for people who have gained admission in 2013-14 to selected universities such as Cornell, Oxford, Ohio State or the Universities of Bonn, Sussex, Newcastle and others.  Apply through these university websites before April 30.  

The African Leadership Academy seeks to  enroll the most outstanding young leaders from across Africa and around the world. Deadline is February 28..

The African Leadership Academy also has the inaugural 'African Teacher of the Year Award' to celebrate teaching excellence on the African continent. The final 3 shortlisted finalists will be honored at a gala dinner in Johannesburg, South Africa in October in front of media, the headmasters of 100 of the leading schools in Africa, and other dignitaries. The winner of the award will also win a cash prize of $10,000. Nominate an outstanding African secondary school teacher- by the 31st of March, 2013 to teacheroftheyear_at_africanleadershipacademy.org.

Aga Khan Foundation: International Scholarships - scholarships and loans for postgraduate studies in 2013-14 to outstanding students from the developing world. The Foundation assists students with tuition fees and living expenses only and half of the scholarship amount is considered as a loan, which must be reimbursed with an annual service charge of 5%. Application deadline is 31 March.

(Edit) Anzisha Prize 2013: Has $75,000 in cash prizes for youth entrepreneurs. Details here and deadline for the @anzishaprize is April 1.

BAKE: Kenyan Blog Awards 2013 awards aim to reward and recognize exceptional bloggers creating content in technology, photography, creative writing, business, food, environmental / agricultural, style, politics, corporate, sports, lifestyle, travel, new blog and others.  Deadline is February 1.

Big Brother Africa: BBA 2013 kicks off in May. To qualify, participants have to be above the age of 21 and speak fluent English.

Blackberry: Developers may apply for Built for Blackberry reviews and the $10,000 Developer Commitment before February 18.


(Edit) CNN Multichoice African Journalist 2013 is open to African nationals, working on the continent for African owned, or headquartered, media organisations and with work that has appeared in printed publications or electronic media that is primarily targeted at and received by an African audience. Deadline is 17 April 2013.

(Edit) The 10th edition of Diageo's DABRA awards is now open. The Diageo Africa Business Reporting Awards will recognize journalists and editors who provide high quality coverage of the business environment in Africa in ten categories including ICT, finance, infrastructure, agribusiness / environment, tourism, best business story, business feature, newcomer, media of the year, and journalist of the year. Deadline is March 15.

(Edit) East Africa Philanthropy Awards: The 2013 EAPA awards from the East Africa Association of Grantmakers is now open for nominations in philanthropy categories for individuals, youth, faith-based, community, social entrepreneurs, and corporate philanthropy. Deadline is 30 March.

Egg Hatching Incubators are being lent to individuals and groups on credit, and with no interest charge. 

Faithful Frames: Win a free wedding photoshoot worth Kshs. 15,000 (~$175). Deadline is  Jan 28.

(Edit) Film Mentorship Program: Opportunity for talented young African filmmakers involved in directing, scriptwriting, production, camera, production design, sound design and editing, to enroll in a workshop where they will meet professional filmmakers from all over the world in September 2013. Details here and deadline is 1 May.

(Edit) The International Academy of Journalism 2013/2014 Fellowship program Journalism in the Digital World is now open.  Deadline is May 3, 2013.

Kings Pool Challenge League: EABL's Pilsner brand is sponsoring a national pool tournament that runs from 21 January to May 4 2013.

(Edit) The 2013 edition of Mobile Web East Africa  is on later in February in Nairobi. Read more about the event.

Nestlé Prize in Creating Shared Value (CSV) seeks innovative programmes, businesses or social enterprises that innovate with impact in water, nutrition, or rural development. Deadline is March 31

(Edit) PivotEast: The third edition of this mobile startup showcase competition takes place on June 25-26 2013 in Kampala, Uganda, and it is open to  all companies in East Africa including South Sudan, Ethiopia, and Somalia. Competition will be in five categories of mobile finance, mobile enterprise, mobile society, mobile utility, mobile entertainment – and this year companies can submit a product in more than one category. The deadline for entries  is 15 April.

(Edit) Poptech: The 2013 Social Innovation Fellows program. Details here and deadline is 2 April.

(Edit) The Rockefeller Foundation Next Century Innovators Award series is now open. Nominate people or organizations that can win up to $100,000 for solving entrenched social problems. Deadline is February 28

Squad Digital: The digital agency is seeking an experienced digital business director with  knowledge of social SEO, Mobile (e.g. M-banking) 

TAHMO: Design a sensor that measures a weather or hydrological variable (temperature, wind, dust or lightning) and is both inexpensive and robust.  Deadline is 1 March 2013.

Tony Elumelu Foundation: Is seeking companies to place interns with for periods of  8-10 weeks. They should have revenue of $250,000 - $5 million per year and agree to pay for stipends while the Foundation will  cover the cost of recruitment, travel, and accommodation  

Toyota: Dream Car art contest dubbed "Your Dream—The Car of the Future" aims to create an opportunity for children (in 3 categories) —through drawing pictures of their “dream cars” —to develop their interest in cars. Deadline is January 31. 

Tullow Oil: The Group Scholarship Scheme will offer up to 114 scholarships across its countries of operation (10 for Kenya) for the 2013/14 academic year and these can be in engineering & tech., oil & gas economics, business journalism, law, and others. Deadline is 13 February. 

World Bank Africa: Social media internship - apply by responding to the phrase: #iwant2work4africa because..

Nairobi’s Future Roads

Last month at the opening of the next phase of the Office Park complex,  Engineer Arasa of the Kenya Ministry of Roads gave a talk on the future of roads in Nairobi  - who's construction this year will amount to  Kshs. 153 billion (~$1.8 billion) and reach an eventual total spend of Kshs. 2 trillion over the next 15 years. 

Kileleshwa road with a cycle path

The biggest one has been the Nairobi-Thika Highway, financed by the African Development Bank but other roads  are the Eastern bypass (connecting Mombasa Rd to Thika Rd)  and the  Northern bypass (connecting Thika Rd to the Nakuru Highway)  which are being financed by the Chinese Government. There is also the  Southern bypass which is a 28KM dual carriageway road linking Mombasa Road to Kikuyu, that will be constructed at a cost of Kshs. 1.1 billion and is jointly financed by the Kenya and Chinese governments. It will have  3 flyovers (including at community, Thogoto and Dagoretti Roads) and is expected to be complete by July 2015.

There are also the missing link  roads in the west of Nairobi, being financed by the Japanese Government that will connect Ngong Rd to James Gichuru, and Gitanga Rd to Waiyaki Way - both though Kileleshwa -  and both are expected to be completed in March 2013. (Note the bulldozers at the Yaya parking now) 

Others include upgrading  Langata Rd to dual carriageway at Kshs 2.6 billion (with an underpass at Bomas junction) and, and there are also the Upper Hill Roads being done in two phases (Kshs 2 billion, financed by GoK), starting with the widening of Elgon, Kilimanjaro, Upper Hill, and Bunyala Roads to dual carriageway  by May 2014.

Bomas junction in the future

Other planned roads in the future include  converting Adams Arcade - Karen - Ngong - Bomas to four lanes (with flyovers at Dagoretti Corner and Karen shopping centre)  - between 2013 - 2016 to be financed by the Chinese Govt at an estimated cost of Kshs 15 billion. Another will convert Outer Ring Rd to dual carriageway (at a cost of Kshs 6 billion, of which 3.5 billion has been sourced from ADB) .

Some interesting point in the talk were:

• Though stats show that 47% of Nairobians walk to work, the Roads Ministry hopes the new roads will address several challenges such as unregulated public transportation, encroachment on road reserves, (past) low investment in roads, inefficient junctions and the already present traffic. They also know that more & better roads may result in more traffic e.g. Thika Road which used to handle 70,000 vehicles per day, will have 100,000 per day by the end of the year.
• Thika Road will be a toll road.
• Another missing link road may include a fly over at the City Mortuary junction.

Open Data and African Banking

There are two recent initiatives in making bank economic data more transparent.

The first was by the World Bank a few months ago with their open financial data initiative which has data on bank loans over the last 50 years to various countries with details on loan programs, targeted areas & sectors, how much countries owe etc. They have also customized mobile versions of the data, with a claim that some data is accessible when offline, and with time the information will expand to also cover WB grants, not just loans.

This week, the African Development Bank rolled out open data for Africa with African countries trade, development numbers and other sectoral economic data. It's accessible in English & French. This tool may not have as much data and, as is the case in many African countries where data collection is an issue, some searches may yield zeros. However, with time and a commitment to build on data collection, it will also be a useful resource for investment data.

Madaraka Banking Week

The African Development Bank sets up a regional office in Nairobi.

CFC - Stanbic merger on track.

Dar es Salaam community bank extending their rights issue offer by one month to June 30.

A bank site was hacked (this one?)

Family Bank is being sued for making a bribery allegation against a Central bank official

First Community Bank to be Kenya's first Islamic Bank

An blog investor perspective on the Housing Finance rights issue

KCB plans to open 2 0 branches in Sudan. Also there brief panic created by a smoky generator this week atop Kencom House.

CFA's wanted: Investment banking gets even more lucrative now in Kenya

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.

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

Supporting women entrepreneurs

A joint report by the International Labour Organization and the African Development Bank titled Support for Growth-oriented Women Entrepreneurs in Kenya was released today.

46% of SME’s in Kenya are owned by women who face numerous constraints in establishing and running their business. The goal of the program is to transform women enterprises from being informal and micro-sized, located on inappropriate premises, operating in feminized sectors & and locally restricted markets, and which are under-capitalized, making minimal use of technology – all of which limit their potential for growth. This will be done through tailored financial and other solutions.

In terms of banking and finance, women enterprises are restricted to group savings and micro finance (which yield slow growth). Despite women having high demand for loans and credit, and even though they tend to be better savers and have better loan repayment rates than men, women entrepreneurs are unable to access commercial bank loans. The reasons for this include;
- main problem facing women in Kenya is lack of collateral for borrowing (often is in husband’ name)
- Banks lack confidence in projects owned by women
- Men have bigger ideas and borrow bigger, while women are risk averse and take smaller loans, which are more costly for banks to administer
- Women lack the ability to approach financial intuitions (e.g. management skill, and in some cases education, technical skills or business records that banks require)

Among the recommendations of the report:
- In a pilot program to be implemented in Kenya, the ADB will guarantee up to 50%, loans advanced to women entrepreneurs by a small group of local banks
- Efforts will be made to link micro- finance loan clients to business development services
- A financial guide for women entrepreneurs will be published
- A women’s bank may be established in Kenya to be chaired by the First lady.

PDF’s of the report can be obtained from either the ADB or ILO sites.