Evans Kidero: Scrap metal dealers’ days are numbered.

Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero will soon ban the trade in scrap metals, unless the businesses are properly registered. Whole parts of guard rails in the newly built Thika road have been vandalized by scrap metal dealers, who want a quick profit. Curiously, most of the scrap metal is exported to China, which has a large appetite for scrap metal to fuel its fledging manufacturing economy.

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Medicine, engineering students to pay higher fees.

Public University students will no longer pay the same fees in three months time, The permanent secretary for education, Joseph Kaimenyi has said. Previously, all students in the regular degree programs would have paid the same amount of fees, regardless of how cost intensive their course would have been. The new system of payment, known as’ differential unit payment’ will see fees for medicine students rise by as much as five times, if figures from parallel degree programs are anything to go by.

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Five Career Lessons from Big brother the Chase.

While many view the big brother Africa Chase game as pure entertainment, the reality is that it’s a game about power. It’s a game of love, of betrayal, of scheming, of pain, of bitterness, all enroute to the prize of $300,000 (kshs25 million). Here are five career lessons from big brother.

1. Strategy.

When Denzel from Uganda was evicted, he said that he wished he would have hidden his strategy, so he wouldn’t be seen as a threat. Strong candidates are likely to be nominated by their fellow housemates for being a ‘threat’, while weak housemates are likely to be nominated by their fellow housemates for being ‘boring’ and not bringing anything to the table. Just like in an office, a strong

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Google acquires mobile mapping company, Waze.

Internet giant Google Inc has acquired waze, an Israeli mobile mapping real time service. Analysts estimate the deal to be worth about $1.3 billion. Google sees the smartphones market as ‘essential’ to its growth prospects, and this deal is informed by that. It is likely that also Google purchased waze to

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Governors to meet over President Kenyatta’s ascent to bill.

Governors will meet shortly after President Kenyatta assented to a bill reducing the counties allocation fund from258 billion shillings to 210 billion shillings. The 48 billion shillings shortfall is being seen by some as attempts to scuttle the devolution process, something that the President has denied. 

 Senators, who represent the counties interest at the national level, had sought 258 billion shillings, but

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Sudan freezes oil imports from South Sudan.

Sudan will freeze all oil imports from South Sudan beginning this month. Sudan alleges that South Sudan is supporting rebels in the north, something that South Sudan disputes. South Sudan o its part also alleges that Khartoum is sponsoring rebels in the South. Relations between the two Sudans’ have been frosty ever since South Sudan became the world’s newest nation in 2011.

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CMA to train small investors.

The capital markets Authority- CMA, will hold a public forum for small investors, to educate them about capital markets, investing in shares, and raising money through the Nairobi Securities exchange- NSE. While the KenGen IPO is debited as bringing the investment of shares into the public mainstream, subsequent losses in Eveready, Safaricom and Access Kenya shares saw many retail investors pull away from the capital markets, for fear of losing money.

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Devolution: Counties short of 48 billion shillings.

Counties will have to make do with 48 billion shillings less, after President Uhuru Kenyatta assented to a bill which puts the county revenue allocation to 210 billion shillings, instead of the 258 billion shillings requested by the county governments through the senate. President Kenyatta termed the bill as ‘time barred’, and cited that not signing the bill would have led to a ‘lengthy complication’ for the budget preparation process. However, skeptics see the signing of the bill as an indication that the Kenyatta administration is not intent on implementing full devolution.

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Interview: Isis Nyong’o on investing in African tech start-ups.

Kenyan Isis Nyong’o is an investor in Africa’s technology space and a well-known name in the industry. Until recently she was the managing director of Africa for InMobi, an international mobile advertising network. Prior to InMobi, Nyong’o worked in senior management positions at MyJobsEye, a job site in Kenya, and she specialised in mobile and local content partnerships at Google. She also led MTV Network’s commercial entry into Africa and holds degrees from Stanford University and the Harvard Business School, where she was president of the Africa Business Club.

How we made it in Africa magazine asked Nyong’o to tell us a bit more about being an investor in Africa’s technology space.
When it comes to investing in the technology space in Africa, what companies, start-ups and people do you tend to invest in?
I’m always on the lookout for start-ups which have gained traction with end-users and are focused on learning. The space is in such a nascent stage so I’d be concerned about anyone who is convinced they have it all figured out. The team composition is incredibly important but equally important are

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Opinion: Are land Grabs good for Africa?

One of the stated purposes of the G8 conference, hosted by David Cameron next week, is to save the people of Africa from starvation. To discharge this grave responsibility, the global powers have discovered, to their undoubted distress, that their corporations must extend their control and ownership of large parts of Africa. As a result, they will find themselves in astonished possession of Africa's land, seed and markets.

David Cameron's purpose at the G8, as he put it last month, is to advance "the good of people around the world". Who could doubt that the best means of doing this is to cajole African countries into a new set of agreements that allow foreign companies to grab their land, patent their seeds and monopolise their food markets?

The New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, which bears only a passing relationship to the agreements arising from the Conference of Berlin, will, according to the US agency promoting it, "lift 50 million people out of poverty over the next 10 years through inclusive and sustained agricultural growth". This "inclusive and sustained agricultural growth" will no longer be in the hands of the people

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Seven Expected Highlights of the 2013/2014 budget.

The 2013/2014 budget is expected to be read on Thursday by Treasury Secretary Henry Rotich. Some of the expected highlights will be:

1. Containing the budget deficit.

Will the government balance its books? Will it have to result to extra borrowing from the markets and donors? The Kenya revenue Authority- KRA, has been falling short of its targets for some time now, and will collect just under a trillion shillings for the fiscal year. However, the budget expenditure is expected to be about 1.6 trillion shillings. Where will the extra money come from?

2. County funds allocation.

How much will the national government allocate to the counties. The allocation amount will likely point to government’s commitment to the realization of devolution. If the counties are not allocated enough money, the failure at the grassroots level could be catastrophic.

3. Reviving the agricultural sector.

Even though ICT is touted as a great enabler, farming and agriculture still remains the major contributor to Kenya’s economy, and one likely to contribute the most in lifting millions of Kenyans

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Unilever to sponsor Kenya Rugby team by 5 million.

Unilever Kenya will sponsor Kenyan Rugby team to the tune of kshs.5 million. The success of the Kenya Sevens team in the international sevens circuit has been a particularly attractive segment for Kenyan corporates, with sponsors ranging from Kenya Airways seeking to sponsor the team. Unilever follows a path of other sponsors such as Tuzo which sponsors Gor mahia, and Mumias Sugar which sponsors AFC Leopards.

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How to improve your job prospects as a college student.

It’s that time of year when college students pack up their dorm rooms and head home for the holidays. With their eyes focused on next September, they put together a resume and pound the pavement to find a job — ANY job.

Many of these jobs will be a less-than-enjoyable means to an end so that students can scrape together enough money for next semester. If your holiday job doesn’t fit your idea of the perfect job and it’s easy to adopt the mindset “I just need to get through the next few months and I won’t have to do this ever again.”

It’s easy to take a short term view, but I’d like to reframe what you think of that summer job and how you can use it to help you improve your future job prospects.

Think further ahead
Think about what will happen in your life when you graduate from college in just a couple of years:

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Ruto to meet County bosses over funds allocation.

Deputy president William Ruto will meet county bosses over the row on county funds allocation. County governors are demanding more revenues from the national government, in order for effective devolution to take place. The county bosses accuse the national government of attempts to scuttle

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CIC and SRC to discuss MPs Pay.

The constitution Implementation Commission- CIC, and the Salaries Review Commission- SRC, will meet to discuss MPs pay. Kenyan Mps want their salaries to be adjusted upwards to be the same as the MPs of the previous August House. They argue that under the International Labor Organization-ILO rules, a workers’ salary cannot be adjusted downwards. If their arguments are

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