urn:www-mashada-com:feeds:atom Mashada Blogs » June 5, 2009 2009-11-21T20:01:14-05:00 http://theafricanaccent.blogspot.com/2009/06/one-childs-laptop-is-another-childs-toy.html 2009-06-05T19:05:00-04:00 2009-06-05T19:05:00-04:00 One Laptop Per Child vision. It sounded [and still continues to] like an idea with untold potential. But there's been some criticisms lately. According to Scidev.net, the laptops are proving to be distractions in the classroom.

In some places, the teachers are not in a position to 'teach' the kids how to use the laptops. Naturally, the kids have adapted quickly and have taught themselves all the fun things the laptops can do. So now, teachers have stated that those things amount to toys in the class. It reminds me of the 80's when African countries borrowed heavily to speed up industrialization; bought machines, built sophisticated hydro dams, then realized that they didn't have the expertise to actually run the show.

The other day, I was thinking of how best to take advantage of the Internet boom that's sure to grip East Africa, now that the undersea fibre optic cables have docked. Cheap[er] high speed Internet, plus goodies like Voice Over IP which is likely to revive dead land lines. I hope it means more blog hits. Anyways, I think I'm far more optimistic about the impact of these cables, than I am about the effectiveness of the laptops in primary schools.
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]]> http://storymojaafrica.wordpress.com/2009/06/05/story-of-the-week-june-1-2009/ Storymoja Africa 2009-06-05T15:09:26-04:00 2009-06-05T15:09:26-04:00 ]]> http://mrembo.wordpress.com/2009/06/05/mchuzi-mix/ mrembo 2009-06-05T13:02:29-04:00 2009-06-05T13:02:29-04:00 ]]> http://bankelele.blogspot.com/2009/06/pyramid-schemes-in-east-africa.html 2009-06-05T09:26:00-04:00 2009-06-05T09:26:00-04:00 pyramid schemes that had mushroomed and would eventually ‘burn’ thousands of investors in Kenya.

And the last year has revealed bigger pyramid scams in the form of Bernie Madoff and Alan Stanford, and just yesterday in the Kenya Parliament, some political leaders were un-masked as some of the master minds behind some of the collapsed Kenyan schemes.

Image of pyramid investors from another business daily newspaper article on pyramids

So what was the genesis of the schemes and how they ended? And more important, can they happen again?

Pyramids Rise
- Early investors reaped, and told others about their success - i.e. doubling, tripling or even greater returns in a few months span
- Some schemes were promoted by churches (who received tithes in return)
- Pyramids opened new offices and hired new staff all around the country
- New pyramids opened up cloning existing ones, but promoting a slightly different product/concept
- People took loans to invest in pyramids
- Peoples sold land/ shares / other assets to invest in pyramids
- Pyramid investors cut across all sectors from rural farmers to bank managers

Pyramids Peak
- Early investors reaped, but were greedy and ploughed back as much as they won
- Pyramids grew so big they overwhelmed their managers – some stopped accepting new depositors (but not new deposits which were essential to the chain)
- Banks complained they were losing deposits at a time when interest rates were very low
- With IPO's few and far between, stockbrokers complained they were losing investors during a bull market period

Pyramids Fall
- Banks put the squeeze on pyramid schemes, by freezing these recipient accounts with the funds in them
- Pyramids without cash, tried to switch to different banks and accounts to process their funds
- Banks warned other banks and the Central Bank issued some cautionary notices on schemes
- Some pyramids tried to convert into cooperative societies
- Some schemes bad-mouthed other pyramid schemes as unstable
- When locked out of banks, pyramids moved to safe houses in residential areas where they continued to receive/pay cash
- media coverage kicked in; some angry investors complained on TV about lost money and brought media crews to the safe houses showing other angry investors
- Deposits dried up, and investors demanded their cash.
- Pyramid schemes all collapsed largely at the same time in 2007

Sifting the rubble

Could they have been prevented?
- They were unregulated: Neither the central bank, capital markets or co-operative sector regulator had over-sight over the schemes. Parliament was focused on micro-finance and anti money-laundering regulation bills.
- KYC: Schemes relied on the banking system to move around the money; and if banks applied true know your customer (KYC) principles, they’d have smelled a rat - with hundreds of people queuing in their halls to deposit funds into a single customers account

Unanswered questions
- What happens to the millions of shillings frozen in bank accounts?
- What happened to employees of these schemes? And if rogue stockbrokers were partly brought crash down by thefts from within (internal fraud /‘robbers robbing robbers’) could this also have happened at some schemes?
- Legal grey area still exists. Have any promoters being charged in court? Can any investors sue promoters for losses? The Cooperatives Ministry Task Force is looking at how to compensate investors - but is this justifiable?
- Can schemes rise again? History teaches us that pyramid/ponzi schemes will happen again and again. Maybe using the mobile money transfers, or next time there’s an election. The Business Daily mentions they may have spread to neighbouring countries ]]> http://momaalim.blogspot.com/2009/06/of-grief.html 2009-06-05T07:23:00-04:00 2009-06-05T07:23:00-04:00 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Kenyanpoet/~3/gHBQr7q8lVY/mstari-wa-nne-at-capital-fms-soul-inc.html N.W 2009-06-05T05:28:00-04:00 2009-06-05T05:28:00-04:00
Mstari Wa Nne will be with Joey on Soul Inc.on 6th June and on 13th June for a 2 hour show of Neo Soul Music, Underground Hip Hop and Poetry - 'Soul with Swag'.

Mstari Wa Nne which comprises of Mike Kwambo, Grand Master Masese(of the Obokano), Dennis Inkwa, Leon Kiptum and Yours truly is a poetry group that we formed last year inorder  seeing that we all had a common interest in poetry.
Mstari Wa Nne is on a mission. Every piece we do exhibits our passion for poetry, the spoken word and performance; we also feel that it is time for performance poetry to grab its rightful place in the spotlight that it thoroughly deserves.

Mike Kwambo, a poet, singer, Sports blogger and Rugy player together with Grand Master Masese who is just back from a tour of the UK for a poetry show dubbed 'Cut off my tongue. Masese is also an artist and is known alot for his trademark- The Obokano.
The two will be on the show on the 6th with the rest to appear on the show on 13th June.The show- Soul Inc- which started not so many months ago came as a replacement of a Syndicate Neo soul show by Terry Bellow which I guess is no longer running(Kept hearing a repeat of the same shows on Capital FM).
 It is a 2 hr show that is on every Saturday from 5pm till 7pm hosted by a fresh face and voice to the media fraternity, Joey. Her face can be seen in an ongoing dance competition show that is airing in one of the local TV stations.

Soul Inc is a blend of Soulful music, hip hop music that would be termed as underground, spoken word and poetry. The show is prooving to be a favourite  poetry lovers and neo soul lovers alike. This can be attested by the participation of the listerners in the session that allows then to send in their short poetry/spokenword pieces either via email or sms.
Other poets who have been hosted on the show before are Blackskillz and Sitawa.Thanks Joey for the good work you are doing in giving Kenyan Poets a bigger platform to speak their mind.

 Listen out to the rest of Mstari Wa Nne on 13th June. Those who have attended poetry events where Dennis Inkwa has performed will agree with me that the show will rock. Leon(Chairman) is the sentimetal, mellow flowing poet that cools the stage after the other poets have set it ablaze. ]]> http://africareadyforbusiness.blogspot.com/2009/06/transcript-of-barack-obamas-speech-at.html 2009-06-05T01:37:00-04:00 2009-06-05T01:37:00-04:00 ........READ MORE

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4.Obama’s Egypt Tour: Its Historical Significance
----------------------- ]]> http://kainvestor.blogspot.com/2009/06/kcb-big-in-east.html 2009-06-05T00:56:00-04:00 2009-06-05T00:56:00-04:00
Talk of going regional and KCB Group comes first to mind. The rate at which Mr. Martin Oduor is expanding the bank regionally can only be said to be phenomenal. Last week there were opening their fifth outlet in Southern Sudan and sealed a Ksh.38.4 billion ($452 million) mortgage deal with the Government of Southern Sudan. The S&L (KCB’s mortgage subsidiary) deal to finance construction of 1,750 houses for Southern Sudan civil servants is the biggest deal a Kenyan firm has ever got in any of its East Africa subsidiary.

Compared to other indigenous banks, KCB regional expansion strategy/ implementation eclipse them all. And it’s been paying off. KCB's businesses in Tanzania and Southern Sudan have already crossed the profitability threshold, while the one year-old Ugandan subsidiary is likely to break even this year.

A look at the Groups 2008 financials indicates that KCB Uganda assets grew to Ksh.2.4 billion after operating for a year, with its banks loan portfolio, reaching Ksh.660 million, while deposits grew to Ksh.1.48 billion. KCB Sudan returned a pre-tax profit of Ksh.530 million while KCB Tanzania, which reached a breakeven point last year, recorded a pre-tax profit of ksh.32 million.

In Kigali Rwanda, KCB is also the first to be cross-listed (listed) on the Rwanda's Stocks Exchange. This would see KCB’s stocks trade in four securities markets in East Africa; Nairobi, Kampala, Dar-es-Salam and Kigali.

The bank further plan to open 30 additional branches in Kenya and 20 more in Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. Other Kenyan banks that have ventured into the larger Eastern Africa region include Equity (Uganda); NIC (Tanzania); and DTB (Kampala/ Dar)

Notice that most of these banks have shied away from Ethiopia and Somali (for security reasons: but isn’t the piracy money worth the risk). For Ethiopia I’m yet to understand why Kenyan banks don’t even mention their intentions to go there, probably due to the big government there. But I can bet KCB Group will be the first to set office there.

*Opinion*

From a personal experience with KCB’s below par service, my opinion is skewed towards investing in the banks stocks and not considering to be their client (unless you travel a lot across Kenya or East Africa)
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