The year is about done and its time to start planning for 2009, with alternatives to build alongside the shares portfolio that will be carried into the new year.
1. Money Markets: Unit trusts are currently offered by African Alliance, Old Mutual, British American, Stanbic, CBA, Suntra, Zimele, ICEA. The bare minimums for signing up are about Kshs. 100,000 (~$1,300), initial fee of 2% and annual fee of 2.
2. Real Estate: It’s time for to undertake a real estate investment that should be done in 2009 following the Pesa Tu’s blueprint though financiers have gone rather shy and some developments appear to have stalled. Have we reached a real estate peak after which it becomes a speculative bubble?
3. Social Networks: Need to invest more in offline social relationships – with buddies, friends, mentors, peers, chama societies and sports for spiritual, social, and physical health.
4. Travel more: My passport has grown mould this year and the need to breathe a different sort of air, see new sights and meet new people - locally and internationally is imperative for 2009. I had always wanted to visit Sauri – the Jeffrey Sachs millennium village, now I must add Kogelo to my travel plans for western Kenya
5. Become a pirate?: Investing is about risk and reward and the numbers are there for the new hot profession of late 2008. It’s not very different from what is my daily bread anyway.
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Taxation: MPs and Judges have it wrong
» Kenya Imagine Taxation is premised on the exercise of sovereign legislative authority. Elected representatives lay down the general policy and legal framework for taxation in all democratic societies in line with the celebrated maxim of “no taxation without representation.” "In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes." -Benjamin Franklin, 1789.
Parliament is supposed to be the embodiment of the sovereign will of the people and the personification of their collective legislative wisdom. Whereas there is a general consensus amongst ordinary people that everybody, including Members of Parliament and other Constitutional office holders should pay tax, our MPs and Judges of the High Court think otherwise.
Want more?
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4:50
Kutwa Tuesday: July 8 Briefs
» bankelele away from the Grand Regency
Banking
- CFC/Stanbic merger/takeover formalized: As at June 1, the combined banking groups had assets of 78.3 billion shillings [$1.26 billion], deposits of 55 billion [$888 m] and loans of 38.9 billion [$627m]
- EABS Bank is now Ecobank Kenya
- Business Cubs: Bank of Africa will launch a small business Club for clients.
- Going international: building on the success of Safaricom’s M-Pesa, Vodafone will do money transfer between UK and Kenya challenging western union on phone transfers to India, Turkey, Egypt and South Africa (from Balancing Act Africa)
Investments
- Everyone lovers Safaricom; with 90% of the shares volumes since listing, the company has been added to the AIG index, NSE 20 and NASI indexes from July 1
- One month after Safaricom allocations, and despite paying an extra fee (30/= for a CDS statement) and making several trades, no new CDS statement has come in the mail
Media
- KTN joins the morning show club with Sunrise Live – coming a few months after Citizen TV and Nation (NTV) with their ‘breakfast shows’
- There’s a new relaunched Standard newspaper out today with new layout – but their byline For Fairness, Justice, and Prosperity is straight out of Superman
Energy
- Sweden/China joint oil search: Lundin Kenya has bought a share of the field assigned to China [Block 9, Kenya].
Travel
- Having moved to cut out travel agents, Kenya Airways will next offer hotel and car booking online at their website
- Rift Valley Railways (RVR) will raise freight charges up 14.5% and will charge a fuel surcharge based on average diesel cost and US$ exchange rate from 1st august
Other
- Kenya has no summer or winter, but the high court has a summer vacation from 1st to 8th August
Questions from the blogs
- A recap of the Kenya Re AGM
- Has tourism in the Mara recovered in 2008?
- Does EDGE or 3G after all?
Opportunities
Digital: KDN and the ICT Kenya Digital Village are offering free connectivity for digital villages and schools: the program targets rural cyber cafes and schools – who are willing to pay a set- up fee, and share some revenue earned with KDN
Investments
- The Barclays Bond closes tomorrow (9/7)
- KCB rights close on 18/7 – so far only NBK has offered loans for KCB rights (up to 90% finance)
Jobs
- EABL: logistics manager, governance improvement manager, group audit & risk manager, application support analyst, procurement managers (2). Apply to hr.recruitment@eabl.com
- The electoral commission of Kenya: registrar of political parties, internal audit manager, finance officer. D/L is 23/7 by snail mail
- Captains of B1900 C and D at executive turbine. Apply through info@xturbine.co.ke
- Film commission of Kenya: head of programmes, hear of HR & administration, head of finance, Programmes manager, marketing assistant, legal assistant, ICT assistant, executive secretary. Apply to ceo@filmingkenya.com by 18/7
- Keroche: distributors, area sales representatives. Apply to director.marketing@keroche.com by 11/7
- National Oil Corp of Kenya: risk analysts, internal audit assistant, procurement analysts, supply analyst
- Executive director of the privatization commission which became operational in January 2008. Apply (through deloitte) to esd@deloitte.co.ke (22/7)
- Resources manager at the Rockefeller foundation. Apply (though KPMG) to esd@kpmg.co.ke by 11/7
and
Marie Stopes: deputy director of male circumcision project (africa) [location: zambia} and male circumcision partnership deputy project manager [location: zimbabwe] d/l is 19/7
Scholar/internships
- Rhodes Scholarships (2) for Kenyans. D/L is 31/8
- World Bank young professionals program. D/L is 15/7 -
Business Brief's: May 15
» bankelele Business Brief's: May 15 -
Urban Living Expenses
» bankelele Continuing on the expense tracker series, as well as writing on urban inflation and spending. index
After trying various online expense tools, I fell back and used Microsoft Excel to track expenses by a simple spreadsheet. It's easier because I can work offline to add entries unlike the online offerings - and so far I have five months of data, tracking discretionary spending. These are payments made voluntarily – not statutory ones like taxes, pension, loan repayments of which I have no control.
The numbers
less than 1 %
- other expenses0%: These are various uncategorized or one off expenses that don't full into any category
- Bank charges 0%:There are actually higher but since I am on a flat rate account plan, only pesa point charges appear on the radar.
Recreation 1%: Very low, but I have avoided the golf course so far this year
Education 1%:only registration fees for 2008 and will be much higher next year
Personal 1%: haircuts etc.
Repair 1%: no car service done yet owing to very low mileage over the period (more on that later)
Clothing 1%: Men don't shop for clothes, but this will actual be proved incorrect later
Newspaper 2% - shockingly high. When you realize that you've spent a few thousand shillings on newspapers in just 5 months, the daily habit of reading newspapers seems rather expensive, for information that is available through so many other means.
Communications 3%: Again, men are different than women I'd argue and our Safaricom/celtel costs are much less for men than women in the same occupation. In fact a typical bill airtime unit will be spent as follows 50% text messages, 25% phone calls, 25% phone Internet browsing & e-mail). Cyber cafe charges also fall under this category.
Groceries 3% : rather high considering that groceries/food are not in my docket.
Electronics 3% one off purchases
Utilities 3%: water, electricity can remain low if you know what to look out for and understand/adjust your habits.
Investments 5%: The figure is much higher but this only captures discretionary, not automatic investments and share repurchases.
Dining 7%: like with newspapers, another shocker, because a lot of it is so unnecessary and could be easily avoided and should be reduced.
Drinks7% The reason EABL will over time make more money than Safaricom, and why you should buy more shares. So much of our social life, and networking in Kenya is fueled by a round of drinks.
Co-related expenses
Transport: Early on in the first month i realized that car parking was going to be a major unnecessary expense, while driving to work was sometimes inconvenient (leave early & return late or sit in traffic with 100,000 other cars ) - so i chose to use public transport more - and relax, read, watch music videos etc. and leave the driving headach to others. Also with the increasing cost of petrol (89 shillings [$1.40 ]per litre this week) this week, and with further increases expected, driving is an evening and weekend activity. The low mileage means no car service incurred, despite pestering calls from the garage/mechanic. Results are over the months are Parking 2%, Transport 4% (matatu/citi hoppa/KBS – but also some holiday travel) and Fuel 7% .
Relatives: men don't shop for themselves, but adding up the cost of giving in cash and kind tends to others can add up - and I had no idea it would be this high. Gifts 2%, Charity 4% and Family 5% means 11% is going out - mostly to relatives.
Rent 39% : You could argue that this is not discretionary, but it is and shows why i can't afford a mortgage now, which will cost about another 20% of my funds.
Off to next year, and to capture increased education and recreation expenses some things will have to cut back.
Job offer
From wazobiajobs.com: a job with Cisco Systems as a Global System Integrator Channel Account Manager in Nairobi. -
The Press Filter
» bankelele A glance at the weekend newspapers shows government departments putting up paid advertisements in the newspaper. These include the permanent secretary - Ministry of Finance setting the record straight on the country’s domestic debt position, the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Justice on parliament’s recent amendment to curb powers of the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission and even the government spokesman (who’s the equivalent of a permanent secretary) on thetribal balance of the government (through an ad placed in all papers including the Nairobi star)
Of course its’ not just the government that has trouble getting their ‘facts’ out before the media – the Kenya land alliance on the Land Bill, former MP Basil Criticos claiming the government 'grabbed' his sisal farm, the National Bank of Kenya defending the government in the Criticos land sale etc.
With four major TV stations and a dozen newspapers and radio stations, the amount of stories churned out by the media is endless. But with politics dominating most of the media channels during this election year, it is easy for important facts to be addressed by interested parties – and the only way they can be assured that their story will be transmitted verbatim - no editing, slanting, filtering, or even buried by the media - to the public is by paying for an advertisement themselves - at a cost of about 70,000 shillings (about $1,000)
However, there’s a flip side to this. A media story is supposed to be balanced – and by placing a statement in the papers, they are telling their side of the story without challenge, or argument – and without an opposing view, a paid up statement is just an advertisement.
Election briefs
- The Electoral Commission of Kenya has enabled registered voters to check on the status of their vote eligibility online - just by entering a nation ID number or voter’s card number.
- Botswana residents living in Kenya have been invited to register to vote at the country's high commission in Nairobi this month. That’s something Kenyans in the Diaspora can pressure for their local embassies to do for them also in future. -
Eye on media
» bankelele There's a new magazine on the streets called ET - or Expression Today edited by David Makali that takes alook at happenings in the media industry.
- Nation: A look back at W. Kiboro’s tenure, the bungled staff retrenchment program that led to internet e-mail & rumours, how NMG got TV licence from a reluctant President Moi, challenges faced in launching the business daily and an indepth look at the problems they have faced with staff in Tanzania and a TV licence in Uganda
- Standard How KTN has slipped behind NTV in latest TV
rankings (from Steadman), why Katherine Kasavuli, Swaleh Mdoe, and Louis Otieno left and the staff revolt that followed, rumor of interest from Transcentury or foreign investors, a quote by Kwamchetsi Makokha on how the standard shareholders brought in dream team (including himself) to spruce it up for a sale. But once the paper was
turned round, they decided not to sell it anymore - and got rid of the dream team
got rid of the dream team.
- Royal media: management triumph over editorial desk has handciapped the Leader newspaper
- Kenya Times: Ruto takeover being rebuffed
- KISS newspaper - what it's outlook & potential
- KBC interference and cash flow problems
- Business magazine Market intelligence is no more
- Other media issues like poor staff pay at the Nation, how financial muscle (Uchumi, Samuel Gichuru & KCB) gets negative stories killed in the editorial room, and recap of the Artur raid saga.
It's a great read for 100/=
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