Kenya’s Banking Industry in perspective?

Watching Kenyan news earlier today, I learnt that Family Bank Kenya has acquired a new strategic investor expected to inject fresh capital to aid in the company’s growth. I have great interest in the banking industry, and have therefore decided to shift focus from the political news and give opinions on Kenyan’s banking sector.
So what does the Kenyan economy gain from these banking expansions? Kenya’s economy faces a lot of challenges and one of the things that I am proud of, is that our financial sector is growing. However, as banks keep growing and diversifying their range of products, my main concern is the high interest rates that this banks charge. As a case example, how can the poor majority in Kenya turn their lives around when they are being charged an intrest of 17%? There needs to be tougher regulation for Kenyan banks. Even in the developed economies the interest rates are not as high; at least there are varying interest rates.
On the plus side, I commend the recent introduction of credit reference bureaus. I have always felt that they were long overdue in Kenya; I am meant to believe that the country seems to be on the path to developing a healthy and sound banking sector; however we need to put stringent regulations as far as interest rates are concerned. We need low interest rates for the common mwananchi, not this kind of rates that are only accessible to the rich. The country needs the Central bank to reform some of the policies to ensure that our banking sector continues to build on this growing confidence shown by foreign investors. With the increased competitiveness, signs are that things are being run efficiently. As Kenyans continue to talk about the so called Vision 2030, I believe that the financial sector will play a critical role in the economic development of the country, because banks have been identified as the key to the socio-economic model in Kenya.

Moving to the Western (developed) world with a foreign educational qualification, bad or good?

Reading widely on matters concerning sports, politics, business and community living has played a big role in influencing my decision to dedicate some of my free time to write my own opinions on a wide range of topics. Today, I would like to focus on the issue of immigrating to the west, and by that I mean moving abroad to study, live or work be it on a permanent or temporal basis. Since many countries can be termed as Western world, I will limit my focus to the country I know and understand well, i.e. Canada.
Whenever I have travelled to my home country, many of my friends, relatives and even neighbors have either requested me to give them information on how easy or hard it is to live and work in this country as an immigrant, especially those that have already graduated out there.
My personal opinion to those that have managed to come and for those who still have those ambitions of coming is that it can be extremely difficult and even next to impossible to get a decent career related job in this country if you only hold a foreign credential. Forget about your bachelors, masters etc that you have from Africa, too many questions get asked of you out here such as why an employer should hire you when they can get someone with local qualifications. Some employers may bring into question the genuineness of the educational qualifications you hold; for God’s sake who knows whether you may have even paid someone to fake the qualifications. If someone is going to come here with a foreign creditential, then be prepared to sell your skills considerably and also aggressively to the employers’ in order to show that you are better than those that have graduated here.
For those that are already here and plan to stay here, I would recommend that they enroll in local programs because in the end it will pay off to get that Canadian education. Good luck for those that plan to travel this way, and be prepared to sell your skills. Life is no longer about whom you know, but being able to show your skills in an equally competitive market.

Invest your hard earned Money wisely!

Talking to my friend the other day, I figured out that it’s a must I write about our conversation because that would be of great help to most of us. My friend is a retired man in his late sixties (of course didn’t ask his age), but he still continues to work as a part time employee instead of being already retired. He told me a story of how he lost his investments in the stock market and how he cannot afford to retire. I sympathized with him, but there is nothing I can do to help him. However, I believe that I can be wise to learn from his experience, and so I hope you too learn. On the basis of that conversation with him, I decided that I write something that would serve us well when into comes to investing our hard earned money and that is to invest wisely.
In the course of our lives, we all have different dreams that we want to achieve and if I could ask many people around, the answers would probably include, dream cars, dream houses, vacation, raising a family, education for children and even retirement. While we may all aspire to have all these dreams, very few of us will live to get anywhere close to them. Part of the constraints, will be as a result of our own poor planning, poor decisions in our investment strategies and even poor financial knowledge.
Each of us has a very different style in the wide spectrum of investment. Some people are willing to take high risk to gain high rewards, while some are risk averse, and therefore will want to invest in investments that have very low risk premiums, but with steady returns such as the T-bills.
My personal opinion is that when we choose to invest our money, let us choose to diversify. A little bit of this and that, means that we appreciate the terms of risk management. People who are also risk averse can try what we call mutual funds. With mutual funds, your money as an investor gets pooled with other people and as a result you are able to own part of the companies that ideally you wouldn’t afford the risk, in other terms you share the risk. There are many great financial managers who manage mutual funds and are ready and willing to counsel you on the art of investing. Make sure you collect as much information about the companies you wish to invest in and spread your risk. Never ignore the advantages that you can gain by making use of someone who is trained in handling investments, because they will help you make good judgment.

A future in Business?

We all went into school, college/university to get an education so that we can have a foundation to build on our intended careers. However as the years have gone by, the world has become a fast changing place. Recession has hit hard, and the dreams of having secure jobs for some people are fast fading. If you study the statistics that have been released elsewhere, you realize that over 90% of the world’s populations are employees yet they only control 3% of the world’s wealth. Wouldn’t it be good to be in business? Yes, it takes a lot of courage and risk to get started, but why not the risk.
Very few people realize that less than 10% of the world’s populations are business owners and investors, yet they own almost 97% of the world’s wealth. The challenge is simple and clear, how do we start building a future in business. Most of us are afraid to think. There are lots of wonderful books on wealth and business. There are lots of online articles on businesses, which could be a starting point for all that aspire to get into business.
It my sincere hope that with the recent economic crisis, we may start to challenge our thoughts, our lifestyles and our chosen career path. We all have the capability to be successful.

Achieving financial Independency

Many people do not know the secret of achieving financial independency in the latter stages of their careers is careful planning. There is the mistaken myth that one will start saving when they start earning more, or when at their peak of earning, but the truth is one should start saving as soon as they start earning any sort of income. In the modern economies, most people live from each pay cheque to the next; money comes in and then goes out to paying bills. As witnessed, over the last year or so, most economies have been hit by the recession, evidently showing that financial planning and strategizing to achieve financial independency is a must. We have seen people, friends and even relatives lose jobs, businesses go bankrupt etc.What we learn from these events is that you can never know what tomorrow brings, hence having a safety nest a must.
We need to keep tabs on how we spend the funds that we earn. Saving should form part of our habits. Make use of discounts at grocery stores, and also buy things that are a necessity. Live within your means. Don’t finance luxuries, like borrowing to go on vacation.
Credit cards are easy to get nowadays and can be tempting, keep them away from our wallets and only use them in periods of emergency. Achieving our goals of financial success requires discipline and focus. We all have the capability, if we can learn the secrets of money management

As the moment of Truth draws closer-The Kenyan Constitution Referendum

The Kenyan constitutional referendum has been a waste of resources for a long time. The government spent so much money in the defeated referendum in November 2005. Again, leading to this upcoming referendum, the government finds itself in a situation where they have spent so much resource to put the draft together and even campaign for the draft itself. Surely, we have got to move on from these YES and NO’s .There is nothing worse in life than failing to make a decision, and this is what we have certainly been witnessing over the last few years. Sometimes it’s even better to make a decision that’s wrong and build on that to make a correct one. For us to remain discussing the same issues on the constitution without making a step forward is weak and being stagnant. We need to be aware that every time there is a contentious issue in place, it’s always hard to bring the parties involved to agree, what Kenyans need to do for now is to let us have the new constititution and then any amendments can be made once we have it in place.
If I was given the opportunity to be the decision maker, in this case the executive, I would convince parliament to debate and isolate the contentious issues and put them aside. Once we put this issues aside, we can have the rest of the draft implemented into a constitution. Am assuming that once we set aside the contentious issues, we will have a 100% YES vote. Once the constitution has been put in place, the other issues can be reviewed and debated and then a later date for those issues to be voted for or against can be set, probably sometime next year. I believe that this will foster national unity and ensure that no further funds are wasted. We have to be aware that whether the constitution draft passes or fails on august 4th, 2010, some of the contentious issues in the draft can only be amended via a referendum. Which again will call for funds and of course further wasted funds.

Surely, twenty years is a long time for a democratic country like Kenya, with enough educated individuals. It’s a shame that 20 years on we are still searching for a new constitution. Whether we hold this referendum today, tomorrow or even 100 years, I believe that there is no way that we will come to a consensus on ALL the issues or clauses, In my view, let’s have it as it is for now and we can continue to amend those issues on a pay as you go basis. Let’s have this constitution and move on. So from me it’s a YES with no strings attached. August 4th, 2010, one word….YES..

The Kenya Constuitution Referendum

Why I am for a “Yes”

As Kenya plans for a constitutional referendum set to be held sometime this year, I would like to give my thoughts on why we should vote for it and why I support the draft that was passed on April 3, 2010.
This new constitution adds more rights for Kenyan citizens and we therefore should not be seeking corrupt politicians to be interpreting this draft for us. I simply cannot stand Mr Ruto and the church’s arguments for trying to advocate and campaign against the draft. What they should know is we can have what is there for now and anything that needs to be changed can always be worked out with time.
Most of this opposition to this draft is especially from the churches fearing that it may open up the issues of abortion. Having grown up in Kenya, I have experience that tells me that anything that is good has always attracted criticism or variety of opinions from those who feel bad about whatever good you may have, be it beautiful wife, nice home, job or car .That’s why we have those people who thrive on others downfall. I find the argument about Kadhi’s courts less convincing. If these christians want their own courts, who has stopped them. No one. In the Bomas draft in 2005, the Kadhi’s courts was never a contentious issue, suddenly people calling themselves christians are now making noise that kadhi’s courts be scrapped when they have been around for as long as I can remember. A new constitution must be about adding more rights to its citizens and I believe with a new constitution in place, parliament and the judiciary will have more power and as a result the executive will have less. This way we will be able to control the impunity and corruption that is so rampant in our country.
I like the fact that land will be protected, and that parliament will have to vet as to who joins the executive. These so called politicians, who are opposed, are the very same people who stated that the government wasn’t serious about the constituition.Now that the President and Prime Minister are working towards giving Kenyans a new constitution, they are the very same people raising very stupid reasons to be opposed and being in the “No” camp.
Ruto and company have to be honest about themselves and more especially to the Kenyan citizens that entrust them to lead us. They should realize that they are trying to mislead Kenyans and they are only opposed to the draft constitution just because Mr Raila is in the “Yes” camp. Anyways, I hope I wake up to a day that Kenya has a new constitution.
Enough of Kenyan politics!