Topicals



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Recent Topicals

Kenya’s Balance of Payments

Oct 9, 2022

Every government that takes office is concerned with policies pertaining to trade, capital flows, inflation management, the exchange rate system, economic growth, employment opportunities, and commercial policies aimed at ensuring a country's economic growth. Kenya, like any other country, aims at achieving both internal balance by promoting price stability and external balance by maintaining a balance of payment equilibrium. Key to note, Kenya’s balance of payment stood at a deficit of Kshs 120.6 bn as of Q1’2022, a 376.9% increase from a deficit of Kshs 25.3 bn in Q1’2021 mainly due to a decline in the gross official reserves which have gone into debt service. The deterioration in the balance of payment is one of the key challenges that the new administration will face hence the need to develop policies to manage it. As such, we saw it fit to focus on Kenya’s balance of payment to analyze the current state and what can be done to improve the status. We shal...

Kenya Macroeconomic Environment

Oct 2, 2022

The Kenyan Economy is projected to grow at an average of 5.1% in 2022 lower than the 7.5% growth recorded in 2021 amid the elevated inflationary pressures, persistent geopolitical pressures and erratic weather conditions. The table below shows the projections according to various organizations: No. Organization 2022 GDP Projections 1. International Monetary Fund 5.7% 2. National Treasury

Sub-Saharan Africa Regional Review

Oct 2, 2022

According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Sub Saharan economy is projected to grow at a rate of 3.8% in 2022. The projection remains unchanged from the initial April projection of 3.8%, and significantly lower than the 4.6% growth rate recorded in 2021. The downward revision comes on the back of sustained supply constraints, worsened by persistent geopolitical pressures given that most countries in the Sub-Saharan Africa are net importers. The challenges have continued to exacerbate fiscal deficits in most countries leading to increased debt sustainability concerns in Sub-Saharan Africa as the region’s public debt to GDP ratio inc...

The Kenyan National Social Security Fund (NSSF)

Sep 25, 2022

For many people, retirement means settling into a more relaxed lifestyle and having time to enjoy things they did not have time for before retirement, such as hobbies, family and recreational activities. This lifestyle necessitates careful planning in advance through having a solid retirement plan which can either be signing up to a social security fund, enrolling into a pension scheme or investing in other assets like real estate. In Kenya, there are several pension schemes and a National Social Security Fund, NSSF, that allows people to save for retirement. However, there have been ongoing discussions surrounding the effectiveness of the fund, primarily on the contribution amounts. There are also ongoing discussions on whether to increase the regular contributions towards the social security fund in order to build a bigger retirement pot and offer workers monthly stipends after their retirement as opposed to the current one-off payment. As such, we...

Administration as a Business Restructuring Option

Sep 18, 2022

Recently, Kaluworks Limited successfully exited administration after struggling financially over the last few years on the back of weak sales and increased competition from other manufacturers. Key to note the company was under receivership for a period of fifteen months, and is now slated to resume operations. As such, we saw it fit to cover a topical on administration as a business restructuring option to shed light on the recent administrations and key lessons to draw from them. A business is said to be insolvent when it cannot be able to raise enough cash to meet its obligations. Generally, there are two types of insolvency i) Where the company’s liabilities are more than the assets, and, ii) Technical insolvency where the assets exceed liabilities but cannot be easily liquidated to pay off the obligations that are due. However, mere insolvency does not afford enough ground for lenders to petition for involuntary bankruptcy of the borrower, or force liquidation of...