Thread by @MwangoCapital

The Mwango roundup of Today’s Top business News [May 13th 2022]

1. Kenyan MPs are pushing for 62% pay increase to KES 1.15M monthly + additional KES 2.5M for tax-free car grant.

“We are demanding to be placed in the same job scale as judges of the appeal court”

[@BD_Africa]

2. Kenya is set to send a team of inspectors to India with the aim of ending a long-standing wheat import ban from the country amid low global supply.

Kenya banned wheat imports from India due to the fungus Tilletia Indica or Karnal Bunt (KB).

[@TheStarKenya]

3. According to the Campaign for Safer Alternatives (CASA) - a group that advocates for less harmful smoking options; the proposals to increase sin tax threaten to deprive smokers of alternative nicotine products e.g e-cigarettes that might be relatively safer.

[@TheStarKenya]

4. Kenyans spent KES 169.1B on betting through M-Pesa in the year to March 2022.

This was a 24% YoY increase Year-Over-Year, generating revenues of 5.98B to Safaricom.

Betting is M-Pesa’s second-largest generator of revenues after payments.

#SafaricomFYResults

5. Radisson Blu Upperhill has reopened its doors to the public after a 16- month shutdown amid the Covid-19 pandemic .

Low bookings due to the pandemic pushed the establishment to halt operations and send most of its staff home in December 2020 .

[@CapitalFMKenya]

6. MARA, a Pan-African crypto exchange, launched on Wednesday and announced USD23M/KES 2.7B in funding and a partnership with the Central African Republic, which just passed a bill legalizing Bitcoin as legal tender .

[@CapitalFMKenya]

7. 40K bar owners in Nairobi hopeful of gradual recovery of business from the pandemic-induced slump.

More than KES 150B and 250K jobs have been lost in the industry since 2020 - out of which 10K jobs have been restored due to the slow rate of hiring.

[@TheStarKenya]

8. The toll rates for the Nairobi expressway have been set for opening on May 14.

- Heavy vehicles with four or more axles will be four times above the rates of saloon vehicles.

- Ambulance, Police vehicles, and fire trucks are exempted from paying the rates.

[@CapitalFMKenya]

9. CMA licenes three fund managers: African Alliance Kenya Asset Managers Limited, CPF Financial Services Limited, and Kuza Asset Managers Limited; raising the total number of licensed fund managers to 29 in Kenya.

[@CapitalFMKenya]

10. Namibia launches sovereign wealth fund set to buffer against economic shocks.

The fund be split into two: the Intergenerational and Stabilization account which will be financed with proceeds from the renewable energy industry, mining royalties & fishing quotas.

[@BBGAfrica]

11.Kenya’s Cabinet resolved to maintain the fuel subsidy that has been cushioning the public against rising prices.

Kenya’s Stabilization Fund that has been subsidizing the fuel collected KES 25.2B in the year through end-June 2021.

[@BBGAfrica]

12. Nigeria stocks evade global stocks selloff as foreign investors trapped by currency constraints double down.

The NGX ALl Share Index has rallied 24% YTD as close of Wednesday. Comparatively, Emerging-market frontier stocks were down 11%, MSCI World Index -18%.

[@BBGAfrica]

13. Mining investors are back in Africa amid global rush for metals vital to the global energy transition.

In Zambia, the new President Hakainde Hichilema has wooed foreign investors to its mining sector; seeking to triple copper output in the next decade.

[@BBGAfrica]

14/14. Kenya to send inspectors to India aim to a long-standing import ban for Indian wheat amid low global supply.

The wheat import was banned due to the fungus Tilletia Indica.

In 2021, Kenyan wheat import was 2.2M tonnes vs local production of 180K tonnes.

[@TheStarKenya]