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Recent Topicals

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Focus of the Week: Kenya’s Balance of Payments Report

Oct 27, 2024

In pursuit of a stable and sustainable economic future, the Kenyan government prioritizes balancing its economic policies, especially regarding the Balance of Payments. Achieving this balance is essential to ensuring stable trade relations, managing capital inflows and outflows, addressing inflationary pressures, and maintaining a favourable exchange rate system. These efforts are geared towards fostering economic growth, creating employment opportunities, and implementing strategic commercial policies, all of which play pivotal roles in Kenya's pursuit of a robust and sustainable economic trajectory. In light of this, we saw it fit to focus on Kenya’s balance of payments to analyse the current state and what can be done to improve it. We have previously tacked the subject of balance of payments in our topical titled

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Kenya Listed Insurance H1’2024 Report

Oct 20, 2024

Following the release of the H1’2024 results by Kenyan insurance firms, the Cytonn Financial Services Research Team undertook an analysis on the financial performance of the listed insurance companies and the key factors that drove the performance of the sector. In this report, we assess the main trends in the sector, and areas that will be crucial for growth and stability going forward, seeking to give a view on which insurance firms are the most attractive and stable for investment. As a result, we shall address the following: Insurance Penetration in Kenya, Key Themes that Shaped the Insurance Sector in H1’2024, Industry Highligh...

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Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF) review

Oct 13, 2024

For 58 years, the Kenyan government has offered health insurance to its citizens through The National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF). The fund was established in 1966 through an act of parliament, with a core mandate of providing affordable medical insurance coverage to all Kenyans. However, years later, the state of public healthcare in the country remained below par, with inefficiencies that have led to repeated civil actions, inequality in health care provision, sub-par infrastructure, and a host of other challenges.  In 2017, the Kenyan government made a strong commitment to achieve universal health coverage (UHC) as one of the Big 4 Agenda by the year 2022 and started designing and implementing priority reforms to accelerate progress. This was then picked up by the Bottom Up Economic Transformation Agenda, which also set out universal health care as one of its plans. These reforms included the following: Increasing the sha...

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The State of Credit Availability in Kenya’s Private Sector

Sep 29, 2024

The private sector in Kenya plays a crucial role in the country's economic development, as improved access to private sector credit translates to real GDP growth in the country. Access to credit is essential for businesses to grow, innovate, and remain competitive; and understanding the current state of credit availability in Kenya's private sector is vital for identifying the gaps and opportunities for improvement. According to the latest data from the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK), credit extended to the private sector in Kenya registered a minimal 4.0% growth as of June 2024, highlighting a slower pace of growth and underscoring the need for policy measures to stimulate lending and support business expansion. With the government currently seeking to reduce its fiscal deficit, creating an enabling environment to stimulate private sector gr...

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The Kenyan National Social Security Fund (NSSF)

Sep 22, 2024

National Social Security schemes are created by governments to form the first pillar of social security. In Africa, Kenya was the second country after Ghana to form a national security scheme, The National Social Security Fund (NSSF), done in 1965 through an Act of Parliament (Cap 258). It is a provident fund, which provides benefits to retiring members as a lump sum rather than through periodic payments. In recent years, discussions around the growth and reform of the NSSF have gained momentum, with key considerations on how to increase coverage, especially for the informal sector, and improve service delivery. The fund has also faced a number of challenges in recent years, with concerns about mismanagement, corruption, and inefficiencies often overshadowing the fund’s broader mission and leading to a decline in public confidence. Most recently, the fund was in the news for yet to be quantified losses associated with questionable bond trading. As such, we saw it fit to cover...

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