FINANCE EA DAILY BUSINESS NEW SUMMARY
Fuel shortage escalates ahead of price changes
Fuel shortage has returned to haunt motorists as uncertainties over the State-backed subsidy ahead of the monthly review of pump prices persist. Outlets outside Nairobi started experiencing shortages over the weekend, with the scarcity being felt in the capital from yesterday.
Oil dealers linked the shortages to a lack of clarity on the fuel subsidy that the State introduced last April to stabilise prices amid suspicion of hoarding. Delays in the payment of subsidies to the companies by the government have pushed up prices in the wholesale market where oil majors resell fuel to the smaller independent fuel retailers, who control 40 percent of the market…Business Daily
Lossmaking Posta turns to SMEs for new lease of life
The Postal Corporation of Kenya (PCK) has inked a deal that will see it offer postal and courier services to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), coming as a major boost for the State Corporation which has been making losses.
Postmaster-General Dan Kagwe told the Business Daily that Posta had struck a deal with the Small and Medium Enterprise [SME] Support Centre to offer logistic services to over 2,500 of its members. The contract will see SMEs pay a one-off lifetime service fee of Sh1,000 irrespective of the number of times they send their goods via Posta…Business Daily
Victoria Bank takes Sh200m stake in city kindergarten as loan settlement
Victoria Commercial Bank took a 24.89 percent stake in a Nairobi-based kindergarten as settlement for a Sh200 million loan it had lent the school and which struggled to repay the debt. The lender revealed the financial value of the deal with Montessori Learning Centre in its latest annual report for the year ended December 2021.
The Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK) cleared the deal last year that made the bank a significant shareholder in the institution situated in Westlands, Nairobi, reflecting a rare purchase of a school by a lender. “During the year, the bank acquired 24.9 percent of the issued share capital of Montessori Learning Centre at a consideration of Sh200 million,” stated the lender in the report…Business Daily
Shareholder row, fights for millions rock Resolution Insurance
Shareholders of collapsed Resolution Insurance are locked in a vicious court fight over Sh692 million ($6 million) that the founder of the firm claims his partners failed to pay after acquiring shares in the insurer. Resolution founder Peter Nduati accuses the majority shareholder, Linkham Services Ltd, and its associates of breaching a share purchase deal blamed for the collapse of the insurer.
UK-based Linkham Services acquired 55 percent stake in Resolution in 2020 for $6million (Sh691 million) and court documents show it paid half of the purchase price with the promise of injecting the remaining share by January last year…Business Daily
Taxman to use drones for surveillance on businesses
The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) plans to purchase high-end drones to bolster its tax surveillance of businesses. The taxman said it seeks to commission two unmanned aircraft systems for aerial scrutiny. “The Kenya Revenue Authority invites bids from eligible candidates for supply, delivery, testing, and commissioning of two unmanned aircraft systems for aerial surveillance,” said KRA.
Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) are currently popular with tax agencies around the world who use them to inspect the correctness of tax returns or catch smugglers…Nation
Growing your business with Safaricom business technology solutions
The world is changing so fast today. Nothing that we knew, could have prepared us for the Covid-19 pandemic, and as such, a lot of our beliefs, methods of doing things and expectations of the future suddenly changed.
For those running businesses, the disruptive impact of the pandemic was amplified by the fact that their competitors quickly adapted and found more resilient ways of operating.
Today, businesses that seem to be recovering well from the Covid-19 disruptions are those that have lower overheads and hold greater sway over customers because they have implemented online and other digital technologies. They offer faster services, require fewer people to run their operations owing to the adoption of modern technologies, and are better at learning and evaluating the cost of their decisions because they can record everything automatically…Business Daily