Thread by @MwangoCapital

𝐄𝐧𝐣𝐨𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐤'𝐬 𝐭𝐨𝐩 𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐧𝐞𝐰𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐦𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐬 𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 @MwangoCapital:

1. Kenyan banks are not a happy lot as the M-Pesa Global Pay Visa Card from @SafaricomPLC is undercutting them by offering better FX rates.

#MwangoMemes

2. Sticking to Safaricom, Vodacom has some ambitious targets for it in Ethiopia.

It projects @SafaricomET to reach EBITDA break-even in 4 years & hit an EBITDA margin of 40% in 10 years.

FYI: Ethio Telecom had average EBITDA margins of ~66% in FY 18 to FY 20

#MwangoMemes

3. Not all companies are staring at bright futures.

Sportspesa is among 97 other companies that risk closure after the government failed to renew their licences for the financial year ending June 2023.

We got footage of their efforts to get back in business:

#MwangoMemes

4. Speaking of not doing well, Unga prices are hitting mwananchi hard as they reach news highs with a 2kg pack is now selling for KES 250 in some places.

Please remember to carry gifts of unga ugali when visiting people:

#MwangoMemes

5. Animals too haven’t been spared.

Prices for animal feeds have shot up to historic levels as attempts to ship in yellow maize flopped with millers citing a shorter import window:

#MwangoMemes

6. #Ad Break.

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to keep yourself informed on the best business news in East Africa.

The author is @562tmo with the help of @kmainaeric, @Blackdot_____ and @ekmokaya.

mwangocapital.substack.com

7. One thing that is not helping tame rising costs is the weakening KES.

The KES is down 4.31% YTD against the USD & touched a new historical low of 118 this week.

Just when we thought it can’t sink any lower, the Kenya shilling responded:

#MwangoMemes

8. There have been claims that China is overburdening Kenya with debts that might be a challenge to repay.

China’s ambassador to Kenya responded to this saying Chinese loans to Kenya are to spur development and have no hidden agenda.

#MwangoMemes

9. Speaking of accusations, the High Court this week froze KES 8B held in 52 bank accounts owned by Flutterwave & Nigerian & Kenyan businessmen following suspicions of crime and online fraud.

@theflutterwave has denied these claims.

#MwangoMemes

10. It has been quite some turbulent times in the Kenyan tech space but there is also some encouraging news.

Kenyan startup Duhqa, a B2B platform for retail distribution of FMCG consumer goods, has closed a $2M seed round to scale its offering.

#MwangoMemes

11. Some good news from KPLC!

@KenyaPower is working on a system to allow sharing of tokens. This will help tenants keep tokens when they shift houses or allow them to share with friends and relatives.

#MwangoMemes

12. You know who’s not smiling? Twitter shareholders.

Elon Musk is terminating the deal to buy Twitter saying that the company’s misrepresentation of the number of spam accounts might be a “material adverse effect (MAE)” that would allow him to walk away.

#MwangoMemes

13. We also learnt that KRA [@KRACare] has for the first time in Kenya’s history surpassed the KES 2T mark in tax collections in a fiscal year:

#MwangoMemes

14. Meanwhile, dealers in LPG are yet to pass on to Kenyans the benefit of having VAT on gas reduced from 16% to 8%:

#MwangoMemes

15. In other tax-related news, taxpayers will spend over Sh5 billion to move Kenya’s only referral public psychiatric hospital from Mathare to Ngong, where a modern facility is set to be established.

#MwangoMemes

16. Modern infrastructure is a wonderful thing and this week our neighbors in Tanzania tested their first electric train. Kenyans are happy for them.

#MwangoMemes

17. Turning west, our other fellow EAC members, DRC and Rwanda who have been bickering have agreed to de-escalate tensions on the security situation in the eastern part of DRC following a summit hosted in Angola’s capital, Luanda.

Hope that peace lasts.

#MwangoMemes

18. On to some other good news, Bolt [@bolt] has selected Nairobi as its headquarters for Africa.

The office at Riverside Drive will host top managers overseeing operations across the continent.

#MwangoMemes

19. Do note that the prices of used cars in Kenya have jumped by up to 30% over the past 3 months.

This has been attributed to the weak shilling, scarcity of vehicles and rising shipping costs, pushing low-range types such as Vitz above the KES 1.2M mark.

#MwangoMemes

20. That's all from the #MwangoMemes desk.

🤝 Special thanks to our shawry for memes
@Wanjiku_Njuguna.

📩 Reach us on [e-mail] if you want to sponsor our memes thread.

👇Here is a link to the Memes thread from last week.