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Nairobi, Kenya
Joined April 2022
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Middle class cash flow problem: They are usually cautious about money but as they strive to improve their standard of living, they get increasingly into debt.
All their lives they work to pay off their mortgages, credit card bills, car loans etc.
Uganda's central bank says it will hold an emergency Monetary Policy Committee meeting on Wednesday falling fall in Ugandan Shilling.
Ugandan Shilling is down 11% this year.
That is a great question because IFC backs Adenia Fund IV, the fund behind Quickmart. It’s not clear how much of the IPO money would return to IFC through distributions from the same fund it already backs.
Also:
- Quickmart paid dividends equal to 109% of its 2025 earnings, then advanced another KSh1.1bn to shareholders before the IPO. Cash and deposits fell from KSh2.2bn to KSh700m, while suppliers were owed roughly KSh9bn. Are these aggressive payouts partly supplier funded?
- Family Bank holds an all-asset debenture covering overdraft facilities. How often are they drawn, and by how much?
I have gotten questions around QuickMart, yet I have questions myself:
1. Is IFC a Limited Partner in the exiting Adenia fund or any other Adenia Fund?
This is important because IFC’s investment is seen as a positive signal, it’s important that any concerns of potential conflicts of interest are laid to rest.
2. QuickMart has thin capital ratios, why isn’t even a single penny of the raise going into the company?
A factual and satisfactory answer to these questions is crucial.
Ethiopia says Eritrea forces operating in Tigray must withdraw from its territory immediately.
[Ethiopia on the other hand has been saying it wants sea access, they might see this as an opportunity to invade Eritrea]
Tigrayan rebels in northern Ethiopia have seized control of a key airport and clashed with federal troops in the neighbouring region of Afar.
Ethiopian Airlines suspended flights to three Tigray airports
In the European Union, people can move freely across countries without work permits and they receive same pay, tax rates and working conditions as locals.
If East African Community aspires to be a proper Union, it needs to abolish work permits so that citizens can freely work across borders.
Ethiopia central bank is burning through its foreign reserves as it tries to defend its currency, Birr.
Despite spending $2.2 billion this year on interventions, birr has weakened 3.2% to 162.
Black market rate is at 180, which is 15% above official rate.
Dangote has offered East African countries 30% stake in the giant refinery planned for the region at a cost of $1.5 billion.
The entire project is estimated to cost $20 billion.
Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te has announced payment of $300 in AI dividends to every resident of the country.
The decision was made possible by accelerated economic growth.
Car & General (C&G) profit after tax grew more than four times to Sh2.6 billion in the half year ending June 30, 2026.
C&G sold 12,000 motorcycles per month in 2026, up from 7,000 units per month in 2025.
Kenya government is considering issuing its first ever bond on the Chinese domestic debt market, known as panda bonds.
Tanzania and Uganda signed an agreement with Vitol, the world’s largest independent oil trader, to develop Tanga Port into a regional energy hub.
Tanzania expects potential investments in new infrastructure, such as storage facilities, to exceed $20 billion
I went to a public university, had multiple side-hustles because that was the only way to survive. The same hustles helped me land my first job at a multinational.
Since then I have worked in some of the largest financial institutions in the world (outside the country) and supervised people who went to different universities around the world.
When hiring, I mostly look at the quality of the candidate and job fit rather than the name on the degree.
I had an employer from abroad once asking me, 'why are you so different from all my other Kenyan employees'
After months of staying here he finally figured it out and told me.
'all my other employees are busy looking for side hustles and ways they can collect money from me while you just focus on the work that I give you and I believe it's because of your university, Strathmore.'
Then it hit me. I had always admired the hustle culture in public universities however in Strathmore we just studied and nothing else.
Employers preferred us because of this culture, our commitment was to our work and nothing else.
But with my classmates from Strath I have noticed that the more time they spend in Kenyan corporate, the more the culture gets diluted in them.
The main reason companies form hiring partnerships with Strathmore and other private institutions is because private institutions make deliberate effort to connect their students with employment opportunities.
If public universities wanted to do the same thing, they could.
Nigeria’s Dangote Refinery has shifted from naira-based to U.S. dollar pricing for refined petroleum products.
Move is meant to shield the company from exchange rate movements as it imports oil in dollars.
Nigeria's stock market is the best-performing equity market globally in dollar terms this year, with a 67% return.
The strong rally is driven by economic reforms, increased forex liquidity, stronger oil prices, and a stable naira.
US-based Dynamic Aviation is planning to collect and analyze geological data across DR Congo as part of a push by US firms to take a more active role in the country’s mining sector
Seven American aid workers who were in Congo to fight Ebola outbreak are quarantining at a new isolation facility in Kenya after the U.S. government introduced travel restrictions
- Reuters
One thing that worries me about funds competing for investments by declaring and aggressively marketing high returns is the incentive it creates when those returns can’t be sustained. What happens in the first bad year? Full transparency, or pressure to keep the story going?
Top in Business Daily today:
CMA is now echoing concerns we have repeatedly flagged about these "special" funds: they are using outsized headline returns as the hook to attract new investors, while the actual risk profile, investment strategy, liquidity terms, and downside scenarios are not being disclosed with the same clarity.
