Win #NationHela Cards

Prepaid cards are really useful these days as there's so much you can buy on your phone or computer - such as purchases from app stores, online book stores and deal of the day sites. The best things about the cards like NationHela is that they only take money that you have, and send you an immediate alert on the remaining available balance by SMS. 

This is unlike with a credit cards, which, if you're nor careful, your purchases will creep up and hit you with a surprise when you see the bill a few weeks later. Yes, a few purchases of $3.99 and $9.99 items won't seem like much until you get a bill that is in Kshs '000 shillings.

NationHela has two cards to give away - each loaded with Kshs 2,000 (~$24). To win the first, leave a comment on what you think is a best feature of NationHela or a prepaid cards, and for the second, leave a comment suggesting how NationHela can improve. 

Improving NationHela

Despite the ease of use, and convenience of Nation Hela as an online prepaid card and as a travel card, there are few challenges that need to be tweaked to improve the user experience for National Hela users.

Card Top Up 

The only reliable way of topping up the card is by physically going to a Diamond Trust Bank branch. Agents of the bank don’t handle NationHela top-up’s and surprisingly, Safaricom’s M-Pesa - which would be the ideal way for millions of Kenyans to load a card - does not work all the time. It’s a hit or miss experience, with many phone calls having to be made to Hela at Diamond Trust to trace the date/time/amount of the M-Pesa transfer – only for that to be reversed. 

Account Management

For now you can request for an abbreviated statement by SMS, as well as get an SMS each time you transact with the card in Kenya.  

There's also the NationHela site, where a user should be able to view a history of transactions, and do other functions like block a stolen card. But access to the site remains a challenge - at first it looked like another bank site that only works on Internet Explorer browser and a Microsoft Windows PC combination, but no matter the device tablet, mac, or PC laptop, access to the site is a challenge - with password characters not visible, password changes not reflected, pop-up’s (that are auto-blocked on many browsers due to spam) etc. 

Easy of top-up and viewing transaction history are two essential user experience challenge points that need to be addressed, for the card to get wide acceptance.

Travelling with Nation Hela

Traveling with a NationHela has been a breeze. Unlike with bank credit cards where you have to call and notify them ahead to approve international charges that may be charged to the card, you don’t have to do that with NationHela - just top up the card and it's ready to go. 

I used it to pay various bills in the Middle east including fast food meals, bar bills and gift purchases. The approvals were instant in all cases after swiping the card and receipts were printed  in whatever currency whether AED or US dollars. But one challenge is that, unlike in Kenya when you get an SMS each time you transact, that doesn't happen when you're roaming out of the country - and you don’t know how much you have used, and how much is left on the card. 

It would be nice if they could email this information to card users as an option. One is supposed to be able to view a statement via the Nation Hela website, but that's not easily accessible yet. Having a full statement will make the card a truly useful global card to use for corporate travel, removing a headache at many companies of having to make imprest cash payment to staff ahead of travel, and reconciling the expenses after. 

With credit cards prone to fraud during international travel, there's a move to promote and push prepaid cards and use them as an option to credit cards. Other cards in the market include multi-currency cards from I&M Bank and Nakumatt-ones powered by KCB and Diamond-Trust banks. 

Reactivating Nation Hela

The last few days have been spent trying to reconnect a Nation Hela card, that has been not much used since the launch just over a year ago.  The card was active, but the registration documents were never uploaded, rendering it inactive after a short period of usage. 

The issuance of cards, back office, registration, and payments are handled by Diamond Trust bank and their branches are the easiest way to obtain the cards, as well as load cash onto the prepaid card. For some reason, top ups with M-pesa don't reflect for a few days.

The menu is also on one's phone and can be accessed by checking *348#  and each use of the card is confirmed by an SMS to one's phone. 

Mobile & Card Payments across East Africa

A new unsecured card solution was launched by afb last week that will allows customers to instantly spread the cost of their purchase at participating shops into affordable 6 month repayments. afb have signed up 52 merchants like Baus Optical, Cambridge Opticians, Fabguru Shoes, Kitengela Glass, and local supermarkets (Tumaini, Home Depot, Homemade) and are also signing up other merchant shops where consumers will be able to apply for cards and get them approved & issued in the stores ahead of making a purchase.  afb settles the transaction amounts directly into the retailers bank account, and the the customer makes repayments via M-Pesa. afb next hope to venture into loans and insurance in Kenya.

How large is the card market? A Central Bank of Kenya reports showed that there were 9 million debit cards and 140, 000 credit cards in use in Kenya in 2012.

In terms of mobile money, CBK data showed that 21 million Kenyans moved Kshs. 141 billion ($1.65 billion) via 53 million mobile money transactions during February 2013.

CBK has also come up with new mobile money rules that target money laundering. They require that operators link different accounts opened by a user with a single ID card, flag accounts that move more than Kshs. 100,000 (~$1,175) per day or 300,000 (~$3,530) per week, have audit trails, institute systems to handle customer complaints and retain transaction data for 7 years. 

KCB and Western Union who have an account-based money transfer service (ABMT) in Kenya will extend it across East Africa this week, enabling KCB customers to receive money from Western Union directly into their accounts.

Kenya Airways has a 1.5% fee on all credit card transactions (owing to high processing bank charges).

Following a spate of fraud incidents last December, the Kenya Bankers Association (KBA) has launched an ATM safety campaign dubbed “Be Alert” or “Kaa Chonjo” which include tips such as cover the PIN with hand, and sharing PIN number with anyone (including spouses) 

KBA also  announced the shift by Kenyan banks to the new Europay, MasterCard and Visa (EMV) technology to ensure better security of cards.

90% of KenyaPower pre-paid electricity tokens are now purchased using #Mpesa - according to an Safaricom Business ad.

Diners can now pay restaurant bills via M-Pesa under a new partnership between Kopo Kopo, Eat Out and Safaricom. Restaurants accept payments at 1.5% per transaction.

 

MasterCard and Equity Bank introduced PayPass enabled debit cards in 5 African markets which will enable merchants to receive payments via low cost add-ons linked to applications on their mobile devices (such as a smart phone or tablet) 

Mastercard and I&M Bank launched a multi-currency (Dollars, Pounds, Euros) prepaid card which enables users to load up  to $10,000 and make foreign currency purchases without incurring exchange rate or other charges.

MasterCard also released a study called the MasterCard African Cities Growth Index that showed that Accra, Lusaka and Luanda offer the highest growth potential in Sub-Saharan Africa. Other ranked cities included Dar es Salaam (4), Addis Ababa (5), Nairobi (6), Kampala (7), Johannesburg  (8), Cape Town (11), Mombasa (12), Lagos (13),  and Khartoum (19).

Credit reference bureaus like CRB Africa and Metropol are expanding across East Africa.

The inaugural Mobile Money Africa Awards will be held in Johannesburg next month, to award the best mobile money app, mobile banking service, and mobile money platform for Africa, among others.  

Nation Hela launched last year has 8,000 active cards in use.

With PesaPal, Kenyans in the Diaspora can send school fees payment directly to 12,000 schools in Kenya using their credit cards (no need for money transfer service). 

Shell Kenya have a visa card promotion to encourage motorists to swipe their cards and pay for fuel The platform is powered by Equity Bank POS at all Shell stations, and station owners are not charged commissions for card sales (Shell pays all commissions).

Tangaza321 is said to be the second largest mover of mobile money behind M-Pesa. The Tangaza system uses biometric data (fingerprints) as many customers don't possess national ID cards and allows them to send money across all networks, even to people who don’t have mobile phones.

A team with the University of Nairobi’s University Students Community Organization (Uniscoo)  has developed a prepaid card for university students. Uniscoo which has 25,000 students seeks to encourage good money management among students through the use of the prepaid card powered by MasterCard.

Nation Hela to revolutionize remittances & debit cards in Kenya?

On August 15, 2012, Kenya’s Nation Media Group (NMG) launched NationHela in partnership with Diamond Trust Bank and Craft Silicon. NationHela had been first unveiled the previous week, when NMG announced 14% revenue growth to Kshs 5.8 billion and a 23% rise in profits of Kshs 1.37 billion and an interim dividend of Kshs 2.50 per share  for the first half of 2012.

Why NationHela? For NMG that has millions of online newspaper readers every month, a good fraction of who are in the diaspora, and who also send remittances to Kenya, the platform is a chance for them to send money without leaving their computer (or logging off the newspaper site)  – by entering debit or credit card numbers to send to a Kenyan phone number. 

At the launch, a Central Bank of Kenya a figure was cited of remittances of $590 million in the year  to June (up from $409 million the previous year) through formal money transfer channels.

Senders also get value as NationHela can be 30% cheaper overall (charging $12.5 to send $200 compared to $15 for other services), while for  the recipient it knocks out the necessity of taking a matatu (vehicle) to town or finding a Western Union agent to withdraw cash. 

 Diamond Trust who are the 7th largest bank, and the largest agents of Western Union in Kenya, handled the banking regulatory and approvals, and will also do the back office processing of money movement, agents, currency exchanges, float etc., while Craft Silicon provided the mobile interface (familiar to anyone who’s used their Elma) through which users will access Hela by USSD on a mobile phone to get notifications, send or receive money through mpesa to other card users, pay some utility bills, block a lost/stolen card, see a mini statement /balance among other features.

Some cited uses of the card include:

- Make online purchase as a visa debit card

- Move money to or from mpesa

- Withdraw cash at any ATM via visa

-  Use the debit card in a supermarket to make payments

Other future or potential uses include:

-    Pay dividends straight on to cards (maybe starting with Diamond Trust and NMG shareholder)  

-     Kenyans with paypal can move their online money on to the card and cash out payments

- Senders will also be able to too how card recipients use the money they have sent (perhaps answering along standing issue about misuse of remittances 

-  Take NationHela to Tanzania and Uganda where both the Nation and Diamond Trust are

-   Pay staff travel  allowances and imprest at companies (said to happen at NMG)

 

Outlook Some concerns have been expressed, that NationHela may not work out, or that it's going to distract NMG  from it's core media business. Also the web interface needs some tweaks to make the card easier to work.

While the awareness and usage of debit and credit cards in Kenya has been low, for NationaHela there  are plans for online education & marketing campaigns targeted at the diaspora, combined with road shows and town hall meetings around Kenya to register users, convert agents, and show how to use it on a day to day basis - and we’ll see where they are in a year. 

Is Social Media a Career?

There have been a few jobs advertised of late for social media positions including at diverse companies like the Kenya Airports Authority, Nation Media Group and now Squad Digital (for Rwanda). 

But there's more to these jobs than just being on Facebook or Twitter, and ultimately they are about communications - being aware & monitoring of what's being said or written, then communicating a company position to the public, communicating product features, changes  & news, or communicating with customers in customer service - and to communicate properly, entails an understanding of media, marketing, campaigns, product cycles, consumer behaviour etc. This  Citizen news piece gives a behind the scenes look at the currently widely-acknowledged corporate leader in social media engagement - Safaricom.

Not all companies are ready for social media, nor should they all be online - and while the current mediums are blogs, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook, they may next be on others such as G+, Whive or Mxit, having come from engaging on company websites and email. But ultimately, it's about communications, not social media, and as @kaboro said - if all you know is Facebook & twitter, you’ll be out of a job before long.

Media Moment: Newspapers Circulating in Africa

Half year Growth: Kenya’s Nation Media Group released their half-year results on August 2 in Nairobi. The results were impressive for a media house, and as their CEO (Linus Gitahi) noted, newspapers still show double-digit growth in Asia, Latin America and Africa.

At NMG Circulation numbers were up in terms of Nation copies distributed (up 6%, though no numbers cited), circulation revenue of the East African is 5% and business daily is up 10% - and overall the newspaper division had operating profits up 36% thanks to reduced costs.

NMG have also expanded in the region (Tanzania and Uganda), invested heavily in digital media, but pulled out of a magazine venture (EAMagazines) before it collapsed. (The venture has been revived with new owners, and one magazine True Love is now back in publication)

They have also reached out to the online community and social media - as the CEO mentioned Facebook several times noting the 100,000+ fans of their EASY FM radio station. Also, like with the Pan African Media Conference that marked their 50th anniversary, NMG reached out to the online community via invitations to bloggers to attend the announcement, and the CEO noted the presence of DJ CK (Chris Kirubi) and Aly Khan Satchu of Rich Management.

(The CEO’s half year presentation can be downloaded from the NMG investor page).

TV In –n- Out: The Indian Ocean Newsletter hinted that a new TV station and a new newspaper would hit the streets of Nairobi on August 1. No newspapers are out yet, but a 'new' TV station is now up on air. At recent, events the presence of staff with the 'GBS' name (not to be confused with the collapsed UK sports broadcaster GTV) have been noted, but few knew what that meant. Now the station is air with a very powerful signal – as the Good News Broadcast Service a.k.a GBS with a mix of news and Christian programming

However, still missing from free airwaves is CNBC Africa which is no longer broadcast on free TV in Nairobi and is only exclusive to satellite subscribers on DSTV

Kenya Times Falls: Also missing from many streets and the advertising radar is Kenya Times newspaper which has floundered ever since KANU lost the Presidency in 2002. Dalliances with potential new owners, editors, investors have not borne fruit, and last week there was a notice in the paper about the entire office and press of thew newspaper going under the auctioneer’s hammer. Today’s paper has another ad canceling that auction but it’s probably just a postponement of the inevitable unless …

Centum seeks Carbacid

and other Bank Twits

Twitter is a micro-blogging tool that is relly nifty for doing mini-posts, forwards and other remarks that (are on any subject) and are maybe not worthy of a full blog post. Here’s a summary of my week on Twitter:

- @louizah Zain Vuka has ended? Please confirm
- @NTV showing IFC-funded docu on women entreprenurs - meaning manu-arsenal will be on tape delay - WHY? next @NTV ditched a static-filled channel & skipped their 'half time' piece to present second half live, on a much clearer signal! Kudos
- Sports journo era over? Player asks for trade on blog team obliges on Twitter player thanks fans on Facebook http://tinyurl.com/d967eu
- blog post Why Safaricom should spin off MPesa http://bit.ly/gYZ86
- The Central Bank of Kenya reports have become incomprehensible B.S
- Upgraded Safaricom Investor relations page has media and CEO briefings http://bit.ly/VBZ2f
- Tanzania will now recognize Kenya manufacturers mark of quality http://bit.ly/USZHg
- Delta Air round-trip intro fares from Nairobi include (ex-tax) $650-NY/DC, $975-ATL/Chi/ Dallas, $1124-LA/SF and $1440-Detroit
- @kahenya @jamesmurua likes Riviera, which has good crowd and facilities, but beer is pricey and the place is a fire-trap
- So Joe Biden met Nairobi mayor Majiwa in chicago. There, thats the end of the joke
- Safaricom CEO says M-Pesa not yet profitable http://bit.ly/TDV8D
- @leofaya says Kenyan promoters are killing Facebook http://bit.ly/zBHXB
- Today's pavement uprooting is sponsored by access kenya - as the fibre optic railway is laid around Nairobi
- @Archermishale sports conspiracy goes that where a sport wants to sway a big game, they put in a low-quality ref, but didn't happen on Wednesday
- Safaricom partners with Kenyas' largest bank KCB http://bit.ly/J4l92
- Kenya budget saga ($115 million) blamed on a typo - Quote ODB "N___ please!" http://tinyurl.com/p5hoyo
- blog post: two bank shareholder meetings same day same building same time http://bit.ly/86lNq
- @pinkm so you can only use debit, but not credit card to buy amazon books from KE? Interesting
- Ethiopian Air applies to fly from Nairobi to Amsterdam and Nairobi –Liege (Belgiu
- Land spin: Could there be a link between migingo island and the kampala land kenya got from Uganda military?
- If MTN buy Yu or Access Kenya, they will have to negotiate with MTN matatu society for use of name
- blog post Its Our Turn to Eat (is credit card worthy) http://bit.ly/YnriQ
- NMG 2008 report gives prominent mention of new digital division, Making-Nation DVD and Zuqka portal http://tinyurl.com/qkcphc
- Centum applies to the CMA to buy Kshs.350m of Carbacid shares and be largest shareholder of the Nairobi listed (but suspended) company
- Senator cards advise customers to only upload to https, not http sites. It's rare to find credit company giving card advice
- From Mars Group: Parliament's Report on the Kenya Budget inconsistencies http://blog.marsgroupkenya....

Bloggers and forums

tribes & stocks: The recent closure of the popular mashada forums could easily have spilt over to the popular shares forum Stocks Kenya had the administrators not put out an appeal for Peace and Reconciliation in Kenya;

We have reduced focus on politics in the discussion forum as the forum it has been abused.

Thankfully it has maintained its tone for corporate and investment issues where the hot discussion topic is now East African Cables, not politics

And Mashada regulars are invited to visit ihavenotribe instead.

Media blogs: The Standard quietly added a blog page with star commentators late last year but without much fanfare and they are not given any prominence on the front page of the newspapers’ website. At least hen the Nation launched their blog page they ran a few columns in the paper itself to promote the feature.

Salute: To Afromusing for a small mention in the Economist on twittering.

Media gags the public?

strange times these: The leadership forum has brought some great talks with great Q&A sessions with leaders like John Gakuo and Michael Joseph; but when we invite the Nation Media Group CEO Linus Gitahi to talk about Africa’s Competitive Advantage In The Global Market Place – he will respond to questions posed by the audience in advance. - strange change of format, and we don’t even know what he will say.

Bank Review ‘07: Part 1

the bottom 5

The low end of the banking sector showed little growth in loans or deposits – bank sizes are stagnant.

40. City Finance: (last year 42) Estimated assets of 650 million shillings ($9.28 million) and loss of 20 million shillings in 2007. Kenya’s smallest bank was taken over by the Baraka Fund late in the year, and is expected to be recapitalized and turned around from 2008.

39. (41) Dubai: Estimated 1,480 million assets, profit of 10m shillings.
Growth of about 3% this year, but the bank will have achieve a smaller profit than last year. Its niche branch in Eastleigh and foreign remittance product has found increased competition.

38. (40) Oriental: Estimated 1,732m in assets and profit of 200 million. The perennial loss making Oriental bank (formerly BCCI and Delphis) was recapitalized and is on track for a profit this year following a payment from the Governments’ financial restructuring of Miwani Sugar company which owed the bank a significant debt.

37. (39) Paramount Universal : Estimated 2,258 billion and profit of 45 million. Growth in assets, deposits, and loans flat this year but at least is profitable.

36. (37) Transnational: Estimated 3.03 billion ($43 million) in assets, and 90 million ($1.3m) in profit for 2007. A quiet year for the bank which introduced a Fanikisha product for customers to save money and buy IPO shares on the NSE

Bank story of the week

Which way Equity?: It’s rare to see two sides of a story from the same editorial team – but it has happened on the controversial shielding of Equity Bank’s new shareholders with the Nation newspaper editorial defending the exemption granted by the Finance Minister, after the influential Business Daily editorial (sister newspaper in the Nation Media Group) had strongly opposed the same.

Economic Matrix

watch me inflate my salary while dodging taxes

This week has been spent learning the ropes of learning new core banking system. We are in a test module, posting transactions and simulating scenarios, testing what/if limits of the system. So I can award myself a seven digit salary increase, borrow ten times that amount, draw cheques, and even transfer funds from someone else's account to repay my loan, all at the click of a button - a real Cool world.

This week our members of parliament gave us another bile inducing moment with yet another attempt to raise their salaries. These are people who live in an economic matrix where they believe that ordinary laws do not apply to them. They raise their own salaries (which other job can claim that?), pay a pittance in taxes, and are able to propose and play with myriad bills – that all concern other peoples money. From day one, when they blackmailed arm-twisted the then Finance Minister (2003) to increase their salaries they have been on a tear as the rest of the country watches. Now there's a proposal to increased their number either through more constituencies or women seats. I'd like to see more women parliamentarians, but I believe i can already name most of the women MP's who will sit in parliament next year – just add up all the defeated candidates and past women MP's, and activists and you get an idea of the next group to get paid by the exchequer. As much as this parliament has accomplished - sexual offenses bill, CDF, education, health, anti-corruption etc. - this parliament will be remembered for salary increases and lack of quorum.

As a citizen, I applaud the economic gains made, but as a taxpayer I lament the waste that the increased tax collection has not been prudently applied. We don't need more ministers or MP's who live an economic matrix of their own.

Anyway, on to other news


Barclays
- has opened 32 branches since it's change of direction last year
- You can pay for Kenya Re and other shares with Barclays Visa card at Sterling, Suntra, CFC, Ashbu and Discount stockbrokers.
- Barclays stretching personal loan repayments from 1 year to 5 years. This way, they will earn more money interest income while postponing some potentially bad debts (in duplum era) after co-op bank did the same earlier this year.

- CFC has an arrangement with postal corporation of Kenya to enable people to buy shares at post offices throughout Kenya. This is the third major attempt to extend a stockbroker's reach after Suntra/Postbank and K-Rep/Ngenye Kariuki partnerships.

Equity bank to take up 20% of housing finance. Spruce up on the banking act, as this is not a popular activity with the Central bank i.e. banks owning shares in other banks. Still, it's amazing how many records Equity continues to break. Last year, they attained the billion shilling profit mark; this year, they achieved that in six months

ICDCI stock to watch according to bloggers - Fintrade Capital and Smart Biz Africa

National bank: Having sorted out its non performing debt problem, will it become a target for Stanbic again, after CFC merger is done? Also Equity is a long shot

NIC: In the week it was dropped from the 20 share index (in favor of ICDCI), it was also the best performing stock after announcing a rights issue and bonus share proposal . This former Barclays subsidiary has been the leading provider of asset finance to individuals and corporations in Kenya.

Other

Kenya Airways receives the first Embraer 170 LR(two more to follow) plane which will serve Zanzibar, Mombasa and Dar es Salaam routes.

Nation media group has had another record profit half year and an interim dividend of 3/= to be paid. They launched the business daily a few months ago, but could they be about to launch yet another newspaper in September?

It may be called the Daily Star, and will come a few months after Kiss FM's Nairobi Star. Both Business daily and the Nairobi Star (where's the John Githongo column and news website?)have faded somewhat from public presence of mind since their high profile launches. B-Daily is a great read online, and should remain so.

The Minister of Finance talks about having virtual meeting to cut costs – perhaps like Vodafone which has an AGM page with webcast and voting items online

Award opportunity
opportunity for 5 dynamic African companies from either Burundi Rwanda Tanzania Uganda or Kenya to earn up to $50,000.

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

Business Briefs

KISS FM firings
Another round of media musical chairs, this time at KISS FM. Most of them should land jobs at other media houses, further confusing listeners who tend to associate the personalities with particular stations. Last month it was Nation TV which poached several personalities from KTN.

Kenya Railways Privatization Plan
Seven bidders have been given till June 15 to submit their proposals to the government to manage KR, and the winner will be announced December 15th. The government has asked the bidders to consider the following in their proposals; (i) retain KR’s 9,000 worker until a WB retrenchment plan is adopted (ii) double the volume of cargo carried by KR within 5 years (iii) sign a performance management contract. The bidders have in turn agreed to increase KR’s capacity by 20% a year, and have all expressed no interest in continuing any passenger traffic on KR.

Nation Media Group
Turnover at the NMG increased from 4.5 billion in 2003 to 4.9 billion in 2004, and net profit increased from 602 to 641 million shillings (12 shillings EPS). They will pay a 100% divided (5 shillings per share?) and in addition shareholders will receive one bonus share for each three they hold as at May 2005.

Unilever Tea Kenya
Posted a 360m profit, up from 62 million in 2003, attributing it to better tea sales, improvements in production and favorable exchange rates. The profit comes to an earning per share (EPS)of 7.39 for the year, of which they will pay 6 shillings as a dividend. In 2003, they also paid 6 shilling divided, but on earnings per share 1.27 shillings only.

Uchumi
Uchumi lost 632 million in the last six months of 2004, compared to a loss of 217 million in the same period last year. Their turnover also reduced from 4.3 billion to 3 billion. They are renewing their inventory, and will dispose of land, buildings & non-core assets to raise 900 million shillings for debt and creditor repayments.