Safaricom Makes It Rain
Safaricom breaks the trend
These are top business news from Kenya this week.
Safaricom makes it rain
Safaricom is set to pay Ksh. 0.45 per share interim dividend amounting to Ksh. 18B bucking the trend of several firms at the Nairobi Stock Exchange who will not pay or have issued profit warnings. The interim dividend will be payable to shareholders on the Register of Members as at the close of business on 5th March 2021 and will be paid on or about 31st March 2021.
“This is in recognition of the company’s solid half-year performance and to support our shareholders during these difficult economic times occasioned by the Covid-19 pandemic”
— Safaricom.
Sameer Rethinks its business
Sameer Africa Plc is set to return to tyre business in new growth strategy. The Board of Directors of Sameer Africa Plc at a meeting held on 22nd January 2021 approved a four-year strategic plan. The plan is set on a well-defined growth strategy anchored on both the company’s real estate portfolio and its extensive tyre industry experience.
“The board’s decision to return to the tyre business reverses the earlier communicated decision made on 20th April 2020 to exit from the tyre business. This change has been justified by the sustained demand for the “Yana” brand and the success of the company’s turnaround efforts in 2020”
— Sameer Africa
Absa Bank to invest in Tech
Absa Bank Kenya celebrated its first anniversary in Kenya with a pledge to invest in technology projects.
“Over the next year, we will be investing around 1.6B shillings in over 60 different technology projects, all aimed at transforming our customer experience”
— Jeremy Awori, MD Absa Bank Kenya.
Kenya Power in Solar
Electricity distributor Kenya Power will join the solar business. In the arrangement, Kenya Power will scout for customers seeking to have solar panels installed on their rooftops and contract private firms to do the job under a design-build-finance and operate (DBFO) model.
Consumers will benefit from cheaper solar energy generated during sunny hours... The solar plants will include storage with minimum autonomy to cancel out the effect of short-duration supply interruptions which has been a major cause of concern among some commercial and industrial customers,” Kenya Power says in internal documents seen by the Business Daily.
KenGen to build in Djibouti.
Kengen clinched a Ksh 709 million deal to drill geothermal wells in Djibouti. This is the third geothermal drilling contract that KenGen has won in Africa. In October 2019, the company secured a Ksh 5.8 billion contract to drill 12 geothermal wells in Ethiopia. The contract with an independent power producer includes installing a water supply system and equipment.
“The biggest challenge has remained access (to electricity) in remote areas, and in Sub-Saharan Africa with 573 million people not having access to this important commodity. Although energy access policies have continued to bear fruit, with 2019 data showing tremendous progress, we have seen the Coronavirus pandemic reverse the gains. We can only remain optimistic that things will change in 2021”
— Cabinet Secretary Charles Keter
See you next weekend!