Category: Business Daily

Kenya trails other African economies in introducing energy-saving measures, including use of public transport, work-from-home practices and limits on travel to shield consumers from soaring energy costs.

A tracker from the International Energy Agency (IEA) shows that Egypt leads on the continent with measures such as asking the public to limit fuel usage, cutting travel by State officials, and working from home for government employees.

Ethiopia, Mauritius, Mozambique and Senegal have also asked their citizens to avoid unnecessary travel and other fuel-consuming activities.

Tanzania has ordered government officials to travel collectively in buses, while Madagascar declared a state of emergency for 15 days.

Other countries have shut schools or reduced days spent in classrooms and launched campaigns asking the public to be “frugal” in use of fuel.

The measures help in conserving fuel stocks amid supply disruptions as well as reduce energy bills.

Kenya is missing from the IEA tracker on government actions to conserve energy, with the country turning on tax cuts and subsidies to ease the surge in fuel prices.

Rising fuel prices have triggered deadly protests in Kenya and forced countries across Africa to take emergency measures, as a deepening energy crisis drives severe disruption across the continent.

Diesel and petrol prices at the pump have surged in recent weeks, as the economic shock of the war in the Middle East starts to reach consumers across sub-Saharan Africa.

Spiraling fuel prices have turned out to be the biggest headache for the Kenya government, despite concerns that failure to conserve fuel could haunt the economy in the coming months if disruptions of the Middle East war persist.

‘This is increasingly a ‘higher for longer’ environment, which we expect to last for the next few months,’ Mark Russell, CEO of Puma Energy, was quoted by Financial Times.

Puma Energy operates more than 700 fuel stations in Africa and 2,200 globally and many other oil firms are smarting from the supply disruptions.

Countries such as Malawi have depleted their strategic supplies of diesel and petrol, while Mozambique is grappling with a severe supply crisis, mainly in the capital, Maputo.

Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, where nearly a quarter of the world’s fuel passes, and attacks on major refineries in the Gulf region have led to the supply crisis.

Kenya was nearly plunged into a shortage of petrol last month when one of the vessels carrying 85,000 metric tons of the fuel was unable to leave the port of Jebel Ali in the United Arab Emirates.

But the country shipped in an emergency cargo outside the government-to-government (G-to-G) framework with three Gulf oil majors, helping avert the crisis.

But the G-to-G suppliers have already warned that they have been forced to source fuel from alternative places outside the Gulf region, signaling that Kenya could face a supply crisis if the Middle East war does not stop in the coming months.

Four Kenyans died over the price of moving fuel. A war 6,000 kilometres away rewrote the cost base of every business in this republic overnight.

A maritime chokepoint nobody in Nairobi voted for, nobody in any founder’s morning routine could have prevented, quietly swallowed the margins that months of grinding had built.

The country paused for two days. Not metaphorically. The kind of pause where cold chains break, logistics stall, and a family in Kwale quietly recalculates dinner.

No founder hustled their way out of that week.

That is the opening premise of this column, and I want to sit with its discomfort before offering a resolution.

The most dangerous thing I could do is rush to the lesson. The wound needs to be named first.

Here is what this column is not arguing. It is not arguing that hard work is a lie, that discipline is a performance, or that the founders grinding through hostile conditions should stop. That would be its own kind of cruelty, advising stillness to people for whom motion is survival. Hustle is real. The problem is not hustle. The problem is the story we built around it.

The story went like this. If you outwork the room, the room eventually rewards you. Wake earlier. Sleep later. Carry more than your share. Survive on conviction. In Africa, the founder who suffered most was treated as most deserving of success. Hustle was not a strategy. It was a moral position. A theology, almost.

That theology did not save the cold chain founder watching her margin dissolve before her morning tea. It did not move the fuel review. It did not open the shipping lane.

Call it the hustle ceiling. The invisible altitude above which no amount of individual effort can climb, because the factors of production that determine outcomes, energy, currency, interest rates, capital access, regulatory discretion, and inherited networks, never belonged to the founder. We sometimes forgot. The harder we worked, the more completely we forgot.

The strongest counter-argument is this. What else would you have founders do? Sit down? The networks may be biased, the capital may recognise certain faces before others, the conditions may be hostile, and yet, if the hand goes down entirely, nothing moves at all.

This is the honest place where the argument sharpens into something that cannot be resolved cleanly. You cannot stop hustling. You cannot fully trust it either. Both are true at the same time, and collapsing one to make the other comfortable is the dishonesty this column refuses.

Whole generations of African founders have been grinding inside a system that quietly rigged who would scale and who would only ever survive. The grinding was necessary. The grinding was also never sufficient. Holding both truths without flinching is the beginning of a different operating system.

This week, a thread in our FBX founder community made me laugh, then think. Someone asked, in genuine confusion, what kerosene is still used for.

The replies arrived fast and merciless. One member noted the question was almost a confession of class. Another wrote that kerosene was still the original multitasker, lighting homes and cooking dinner in places no fuel review ever reaches. A third compared it to asking what a landline is for.

The exchange was funny. It lingered. We are not all hustling on the same playing field. Some founders are modelling diesel hedging strategies while millions of Kenyans are calculating whether tonight’s meal can be cooked at all. The hustle myth flattens that gap, and the flattening is itself violence. It tells the family in Kwale that the gap is a motivation problem.

It is not. Some weeks ago, I had dinner at a restaurant in a city I love. On a weathered wall hung a Hamsa, the open hand that crosses Islamic, Jewish, and North African traditions. Five fingers raised. An eye on the palm. Dense, illegible script swirling around it, like noise pressing in from every direction. I did not think of the image again until this week, when I needed it.

There are two hands a founder lifts. The hustle hand is clenched. It performs. It grinds. It mistakes motion for meaning. It wakes at four, answers every message, misses dinner, and quietly resents its own discipline.

The Hamsa is the other hand. Open. Watchful. It does not claim to control what surrounds it. It holds its shape against the noise. Composure, not exhaustion. Awareness, not speed.

The maturing founder learns which hand to lift, and when.

The hustle hand still has its hours. The Hamsa hand carries you through weeks that the hustle cannot reach. The mindset that refuses to read a market shock as a personal verdict. The emotional honesty to admit fatigue rather than perform optimism.

The social instinct is to lean into trusted peers rather than disappear into isolation. The strategic patience to absorb before reacting. The spiritual conviction that the work still has meaning, even when the system insists otherwise.

Nobody names the second-order consequence of the hustle gospel. What breaks first is not the business. It is the founder who confused suffering with strategy. So how do you wake up on a week like this one?

Not because the world cooperated. Not because hard work was rewarded. You wake up because something inside you has stopped confusing exhaustion with virtue. You make the call you did not want to make.

You protect what moves the needle. You hold your shape.

That is the entire deliverable for some weeks, and it is enough.

The hustle was never the whole game. The founders who last finally learn the rest of it.

The grinding opens doors. The open hand decides what you carry through them.

Supermarkets are today full of drinks that claim to be good for your stomach. Products such as kombucha, probiotic yoghurts, fibre-infused juices and prebiotic sodas are marketed as good for your health with claims that they support digestion, ease bloating and boost immunity. But how much of what they promise is actually backed by science?

‘Probiotics are essentially beneficial microorganisms, including both bacteria and fungi, that originate from the foods and drinks we consume,’ explains Dr Huzefa Iqbal, a senior medical practitioner at Halcyon Multispecialty Hospital.

Prebiotics act as food for these microorganisms.

“They are mostly found in fibre-rich foods, which are digested by the good bacteria and help them grow and stay active in supporting normal gut function,” explains Irene Jahenda, a nutritionist from Placid Nutrition Centre.

When used correctly, prebiotics and probiotics have scientifically proven benefits for gut health.

“Remember, they are good bacteria, so they balance the harmful bacteria that we ingest in the gut,” says Dr Iqbal. “They do this by competing for space and nutrients within the digestive system and stabilising the pH, which helps limit the overgrowth of bad bacteria.”

According to Dr Huzefa, this balance can help prevent or reduce certain digestive issues, including different forms of diarrhoea.

“From diarrhoea caused by infections and medication to people struggling with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), prebiotics and probiotics help reduce inflammation and minimise toxins from the harmful bacteria causing the diarrhoea,” he says.

Moreover, they might help boost the immune system in the body.

“Fun fact: around 70 percent of immune cells are found in the gut,” says Dr Huzefa. Therefore, a healthy gut has a direct impact on how effectively the immune system functions.

However, experts note that not all supermarket drinks that are promoted as good for gut health are beneficial.

“For them to work meaningfully in our bodies, they need to contain a certain quantity of live cultures,” says Irene. “The beneficial threshold is usually around 15 to 20 billion colony-forming units.”

The intended use of the product and the type of strain involved are other factors that determine effectiveness. According to experts, different probiotic strains offer different health benefits. One of the more common strains is Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG, which can help to prevent diarrhoea.

The nutritionist also says that added sugars can lower the overall effectiveness of probiotic and prebiotic drinks.

“They are generally added to improve taste and boost sales, but too much sugar can weaken the probiotics and interfere with the very benefits consumers are trying to achieve. Excess sugar can also promote inflammation within the digestive system and increase the risk of sugar spikes or high blood sugar levels,’ she says.

While some people may benefit from these drinks, experts say they can also have adverse effects on others.

“They may actually cause digestive issues such as bloating in some people. This especially happens if the probiotics and prebiotics are unnecessary or are taken in the wrong dosage,’ says Dr Huzefa.

The doctor adds that certain groups of people should avoid these drinks entirely or only consume them under medical guidance. These include people who are immunocompromised, such as those living with HIV/Aids or tuberculosis, critically ill patients, people recovering from surgery and persons already experiencing severe digestive issues.

The doctor adds that certain groups of people should either avoid them entirely or only take them under medical supervision. These includes people who are immuno-compromised, such as patients living with HIV/Aids or tuberculosis, critically ill patients, people recovering from surgery and those already experiencing severe digestive issues.

However, while some of these drinks can be beneficial, experts advise that natural food sources are a better way to get prebiotics and probiotics. “Food provides more wholesome benefits than drinks. With a food like sauerkraut, for example, you get probiotics, fibre, vitamins, and other minerals,” says Irene.

Alternative sources of probiotics beyond processed drinks include yoghurt, mursik (fermented milk), fermented cassava flour, kimchi, sauerkraut and kefir. The most common sources of prebiotics include garlic, onions, bananas, certain oats, legumes and beans.

According to Irene, if the gut is not functioning properly, this can manifest as symptoms in different parts of the body, including acne. To promote overall well-being, she emphasises the importance of protecting the gut with a balanced diet that supports healthy bacteria.

However, the doctor cautions against unnecessarily consuming prebiotic and probiotic products.

‘If you are not in pain, you wouldn’t take a painkiller,’ he says. Similarly, if you do not have a gut issue or a doctor’s prescription, these drinks may not be necessary.’

Investors in the Talanta bond that was used to build Raila Odinga stadium will receive Sh6.5 billion from July 7 on the back of Sh24.8 billion gambling taxes.

The government last year raised Sh44.79 billion through a 15-year bond whose returns are paid from betting taxes, which are housed under the Sports Fund.

This will be the first full year payment for the investors who received their first paycheck on January 7, of an estimated Sh3.25 billion.

Proceeds from gambling taxes under the Sports Fund are expected to increase 35.3 percent to Sh24.8 billion, up from Sh18.3 billion in the last financial year, making it easier for the State to settle the bondholders.

The Sports Fund is mainly funded by taxes and levies raised from the betting industry, with the fund targeting Sh2.07 billion per month, indicating the large spending by Kenyans in gambling.

‘This reflects the projected increase in appropriation in aid collections to the Sports, Arts and Social Development Fund (SASDF). The ministry of sports projects to collect Sh2.07 billion per month,’ said National Treasury Director of Budget Albert Mwenda.

‘This includes the amount to be set aside for the settlement of the loan linked to the Talanta Stadium loan.’

The investors will on July 7, receive Sh3.25 billion being the first coupon payment of the financial year, before the second payment on January 7 of Sh3.25 billion.

The money from gamblers is received daily by a fund manager who invests it before making the scheduled coupon payments. The payout to investors includes interest and investment income earned by the fund manager.

The securitisation managers, Liaison Capital, did not disclose the exact amount paid out to investors of the bond in January, as the amount will differ in each coupon payment based on the investment income.

The bond has a 15.04 percent rate of return, which will earn investors Sh57.6 billion in interest over the life of the bond.

The interest income from the bond is tax-exempt, giving it the same status as the government-issued infrastructure bonds.

As per the information memorandum, the government has an extra three-day window to make payments before it is considered to be in default, meaning it has an effective deadline of July 10 to make the payment.

The issuer of the bond, Liaison Group, through a special vehicle, Linzi FinCo 003 Trust, has arranged a standby letter of credit with KCB Bank to be used in case of delayed disbursements from Treasury.

Proceeds of the bond were directed to the completion of the 60,000-seater stadium, which has since been renamed Raila Odinga International Stadium.

As of last week, the stadium was 91 percent complete, as per a statement by the Ministry of Sports after a site tour.

As of April last year, the stadium was 37 percent complete, with the government having paid only five percent of the construction costs.

The contractor, China Roads and Bridge Corporation, had agreed to continue being active at the site as the government sought funds. The Ministry of Defence was given supervisory powers over the project owing to the army’s reputation for prompt execution.

However, monies used by the Ministry of Defence are difficult to audit due to the sensitivity of the docket.

The Raila Odinga Stadium is earmarked as one of the grounds to host the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon).

The National Treasury has also set aside an additional Sh1.5 billion for preparations towards the Pamoja Afcon games, which Kenya will host alongside Uganda and Tanzania.

The budget includes Sh828 million as wages for temporary employees, underscoring the magnitude of the games and the manpower needed to execute.

Printing, advertising and information supplies have been allocated Sh200 million, while insurance costs have a Sh200 million budget.

An insurance contract, worth Sh42 million for the CHAN Pamoja games hosted by the three East African countries last year, is at the centre of corruption allegations against the top hierarchy of the Football Kenya Federation.

The Treasury has earmarked Sh271 million for other operating expenses relating to the games scheduled to take place between June 17 and July 19 next year.

The Raila Odinga Stadium will serve as a main venue for the opening and closing ceremonies, as well as matches of the Afcon games.

Notably, the Sports Fund’s 10-year tenure lapses in August 2028, a year after the games, clouding the payouts of the 15-year bond, with the government yet to issue guarantees of its renewal.

The Talanta bond did not have a government guarantee, with investors relying on the Public Finance Management Act, which establishes the Sports Fund, declaring the Treasury’s obligation to take up the liabilities of the fund if it is dissolved.

Pension funds sponsored by public entities belong to contributors and are not public funds subject to State procurement laws, the Supreme Court has ruled.

In a landmark victory for the retirement benefits industry and pensioners, the apex court ruled that pension savings managed under public entity-sponsored schemes are private trust funds owned by employees and cannot be treated as public money under the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act (PPADA).

‘Based on what we have stated so far, we entertain no doubt that a pension fund sponsored by a public entity was not contemplated in the enactment of Article 227 of the Constitution to be an entity that was intended to undertake public procurement and thereby to be bound by the provisions of the PPADA,’ the court said.

The country’s top court overturned earlier decisions by both the High Court and Court of Appeal, which had held that pension schemes linked to public institutions qualified as public entities because of their public function and State oversight.

The Supreme Court instead found that Section 2(o) of the PPADA unconstitutionally expanded the meaning of a public entity beyond what was envisaged under Article 227 of the Constitution.

‘Ultimately, we find merit in the appeal and accordingly allow it. We set aside the judgment of the Court of Appeal dated April 28, 2022, and in terms of Article 2(4) of the Constitution, declare Section 2(o) of the PPADA inconsistent with Article 227(1) of the Constitution and therefore void to the extent that it subjects pension funds for a public entity to the application of public procurement systems,’ the judges ruled.

The case was filed by the Association of Retirement Benefits Schemes, representing pension schemes, employers and service providers in Kenya’s retirement benefits industry.

The association challenged the constitutionality of Section 2(o) of the PPADA after pension funds sponsored by public entities were required to comply with public procurement laws in the disposal and acquisition of assets.

The association argued that pension schemes are established as irrevocable trusts under the Retirement Benefits Act and are fundamentally private arrangements between employees and trustees.

According to the association, employers merely remit contributions as part of contractual obligations, while the funds remain autonomous entities separate from sponsoring public institutions.

The association told the court that subjecting such schemes to procurement laws imposed ‘onerous responsibilities’ with severe financial implications for retirees and beneficiaries.

They also argued that the law discriminated against pension funds linked to public entities, because private sector pension schemes were exempt from the same requirements despite operating under the same legal framework.

According to the association, the additional compliance burden increased administrative costs and ultimately reduced members’ retirement benefits, infringing on constitutional protections for property rights and equality.

The Retirement Benefits Authority (RBA), which had initially supported the petition before the High Court and the Court of Appeal, later changed its position before the Supreme Court, stating the constitutionality of the challenged section.

The Authority argued that procurement oversight was necessary to prevent corruption and mismanagement of pension savings.

RBA maintained that pension schemes sponsored by public bodies served a public interest because they involved contributions from public employees and employers. It also argued that procurement safeguards promoted transparency, accountability and good governance.

However, the Supreme Court criticised the Authority’s shift in position and rejected the argument that State regulation automatically transforms pension funds into public entities.

The judges held that pension schemes, whether public or private, are savings vehicles managed independently by trustees solely for the benefit of employees.

‘It was therefore in error for the two courts below, to conclude that pension funds perform duties of a public nature and are public bodies,’ the court stated.

The judges emphasised that once pension contributions are remitted into a scheme, they cease to be public property and instead become private trust funds belonging to employees.

‘This legal structure effects a fundamental transformation. Once the contributions are made into an employee’s account in the scheme, it ceases to be public property. They become part of a private trust fund, held and managed by trustees for the exclusive benefit of the members,’ the court said.

The court further noted that trustees and administrators of pension funds do not perform government functions and are not paid from the Consolidated Fund or through parliamentary appropriations.

The court warned against equating pension savings with public funds merely because the employer is a public institution.

‘With this autonomy, it matters not that the sponsor is a public entity. Pension, just as a salary, is a benefit to the employee,’ the court observed.

‘Extrapolating the findings of the courts below would be absurd, as that would be tantamount to asserting that merely because an employee earns a salary from a public entity, then the employee’s expenditure should equally be regulated as part of public funds.’

The court distinguished between regulatory oversight and direct State control, saying the Retirement Benefits Authority’s supervisory role did not make pension schemes instruments of government.

‘The test requires more than mere regulatory oversight; it requires such a degree of control that the entity can be seen as an instrumentality of the State. The retirement benefit schemes lack this character,’ the judges ruled.

The Supreme Court also found that Article 227 of the Constitution was intended to govern public procurement involving taxpayer-funded entities and State organs, not private pension savings.

‘There was never any intention by the makers of the Constitution to include private enterprises and private pension funds, and in particular a segment of the funds sponsored by public entities, as part of the public finance and funds,’ the court stated.

Cable Experts Limited (CEL) has offered to acquire a 68.37 percent stake in beleaguered East African Cables, saying it will clear the firm’s bank loans that pushed it into administration.

CEL has offered to buy the stake held by Cable Holdings Limited, a subsidiary of TransCentury Limited, the parent company of East African Cables (EA Cables), which is also under receivership.

The investor, which says it has experience in the cable business, plans to revive EA Cables and repay the Sh1.94 billion debt owed to Equity Bank Kenya that led to the company being placed under administration and its shares suspended from trading on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE).

‘Cable Experts Limited (CEL), a company incorporated in Kenya, has on May 19, 2026 entered into a share purchase agreement for the acquisition of the entire 68.37 percent stake in East African Cables Plc (under administration) held by Cable Holdings Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of TransCentury Plc (in receivership),’ CEL said in a public notice.

‘The acquisition constitutes a rescue acquisition that enables East African Cables to continue as a going concern, including through the retirement of its existing secured bank indebtedness,’ the company added.

EA Cables was placed under receivership in June last year by Equity Bank Kenya after defaulting on a loan and failing to honour a demand notice issued in June 2023.

Its shares were suspended from trading on the NSE immediately after the lender took control.

CEL, which is seeking exemption from making a mandatory offer for the remaining 31.63 percent stake, said it would pursue the resumption of trading in the company’s shares.

‘CEL has sought CMA’s direction under Regulation 28 of the Take-over Regulations confirming the continuation of the suspension and has proposed an agreed pathway for the orderly resumption of trading following completion,’ the company said.

The transaction requires approval from the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) and the Competition Authority of Kenya.

At the time trading was suspended, East African Cables shares were trading at Sh1.71, valuing the company at Sh432.8 million. At that price, the 68.37 percent stake, which is equivalent to 173,071,149 shares, is worth about Sh295.9 million.

CEL said it does not own any shares in East African Cables and is not acting in concert with any shareholder in the company.

The appointment of Adan Mohamed as Commissioner General of the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) marks more than just a leadership transition at Times Tower. It signals recognition that KRA’s challenges today are increasingly about the economy and no longer purely about tax administration.

Kenya’s tax environment has changed dramatically over the last few years. First, going by what we witnessed two years ago with the Gen Z led protests and even as recent as this week’s matatu strike, revenue collection has become very politically sensitive.

In addition, businesses are under pressure from high operating costs, and taxpayers are increasingly vocal about compliance burdens and aggressive enforcement.

On the other hand, government financing needs continue to rise sharply, with Treasury relying heavily on KRA collections to finance an expanding national budget and debt obligations.

In this environment, the traditional profile of a tax administrator is no longer sufficient. A KRA Commissioner General must understand how businesses make decisions, how investors react to policy uncertainty, how financial systems work and how economic activity ultimately drives sustainable tax revenues.

That is why Mohamed’s appointment stands out. His background combines something rarely found in public institutions: deep private-sector financial experience alongside a long record of public-sector reform and economic management.

Before entering government, Mohamed built one of the most successful executive careers in Kenya’s banking sector. He became the youngest managing director of a multinational bank in Kenya when he took over Barclays Kenya at the age of 38.

Running banking operations across multiple African markets meant dealing directly with regulators, investors, compliance systems, monetary policy environments and cross-border business realities. That experience becomes highly relevant for KRA at a time when investor confidence and tax policy are becoming increasingly intertwined.

Today, KRA is no longer simply collecting customs duties and corporate taxes. It is dealing with digital transactions, fintech platforms, cross-border commerce, betting taxes, virtual assets, data-driven enforcement systems and increasingly complex compliance frameworks. The authority is becoming more technology-driven and more economically consequential.

That requires leadership capable of understanding the broader economy, not just tax procedures.

Mohamed’s record in government also explains why the board may have viewed him as uniquely suited for the role. During his years overseeing trade, industrialisation and regional integration, Kenya undertook some of the most ambitious business and regulatory reforms in its recent history.

The country improved from position 136 to 56 in the World Bank Doing Business rankings within five years, becoming one of the world’s most improved reformers during that period.

His tenure also coincided with major reforms in business registration, insolvency laws, trade facilitation, special economic zones and digitisation of government services. These reforms were not merely bureaucratic exercises. They were aimed at making Kenya more investment-friendly, improving enterprise growth and supporting formal economic activity.

Mohamed’s background in industrialisation and SME development may also prove relevant as KRA attempts to widen the tax base. Under programmes initiated during his tenure, SME financing expanded, export-oriented manufacturing grew, industrial parks were developed and investment mobilisation accelerated across several sectors.

This matters because Kenya’s future revenue growth will ultimately depend less on squeezing existing taxpayers harder and more on growing formal economic activity itself.

KRA is also entering a period of major internal transformation. Systems such as eTIMS, automation of compliance functions and expanded use of data analytics are changing how the institution operates.

While digitisation is necessary for reducing leakages and improving efficiency, it has also increased complexity for many SMEs and smaller taxpayers.

Managing that transition will require not only technical understanding, but also organisational leadership and change-management capability.

Ultimately, the Board’s decision reflects an understanding that KRA’s future success depends on more than enforcement targets. Its next leader therefore needed to be someone capable of operating comfortably in the intersection of economic growth, public trust, and the overall business environment. This is where Adan Mohamed’s career has largely been built around.

Tether, the largest company in the digital asset industry and issuer of USD?, the world’s most widely used stablecoin, today announced an investment in LemFi, a financial platform serving millions of people who live and work across borders.

This investment aims to promote financial inclusion and expand access to efficient, borderless financial systems, while accelerating the use of stablecoin-powered solutions in emerging markets.

LemFi is one of the most trusted financial platforms, connecting communities across the UK, US, Canada, and Europe with family and loved ones in Africa and Asia.

For millions of people living and working across borders, LemFi has become the financial home that traditional banks never provided. Its mission is to make financial services fair, simple, and accessible, which requires infrastructure built to go where traditional rails cannot. Stablecoins are central to making that possible.

Tether’s investment aims to support LemFi’s integration of USD? as a settlement layer across its key corridors, replacing multi-day SWIFT chains with near-instant, low-cost settlement across Africa and Asia.

Tether will also help accelerate LemFi’s stablecoin infrastructure, which will progressively extend across its broader product suite, delivering more stable, transparent, and accessible financial services to customers on both sides of each corridor.

This investment aligns with Tether’s broader mission to bridge the gap between traditional finance and digital assets by offering a stable, liquid digital payment solution powered by blockchain technology.

Through collaborations with platforms like LemFi that address real-world financial challenges, Tether continues to advance the global use of stablecoins, making them more practical and accessible.

‘At Tether, our goal is to promote financial inclusion, and we are committed to working with platforms building scalable financial solutions that address the real needs of our 585 million users globally,” Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether.

“Our investment in LemFi reflects our shared vision on how money moves across borders, prioritising speed, cost, and transparency. By supporting LemFi’s growth and innovation roadmap, we are helping bring the benefits of a stable digital asset to more people who rely on remittances in their daily lives.”

“Tether’s investment is a significant milestone for us at LemFi, but more importantly, it is a validation of the direction we are heading. We have always believed that the financial system should work equally well for everyone, regardless of where they live or where they are sending money. Integrating USD? into our infrastructure brings us closer to that reality, enabling faster, cheaper, and more reliable financial services for the millions of people who depend on us every day,” said Ridwan Olalere, LemFi’s CEO and Co-founder.

By combining Tether’s deep liquidity with LemFi’s established presence in emerging markets, the two companies are setting a new standard for faster, more inclusive remittances designed for today’s interconnected world.

About Tether and USD?

Tether is a pioneer in the field of stablecoin technology, driven by an aim to revolutionise the global financial landscape and provide accessible, secure, and efficient financial, communication, and energy infrastructure.

Tether enables greater financial inclusion and communication resilience, fosters economic growth, and empowers individuals and businesses.

As the creator of the largest, most transparent, and liquid stablecoin in the industry, Tether is dedicated to building sustainable and resilient infrastructure for the benefit of underserved communities. By leveraging cutting-edge blockchain and peer-to-peer technology, it is committed to bridging the gap between traditional financial systems and the potential of decentralised finance.

About LemFi

LemFi is the leading financial platform on a mission to make everyday financial services fair, simple, and accessible to traditionally underserved communities globally.

The tea in your cup today began its journey in someone else’s hands. Hands whose work most of us never think about.

Almost certainly, those hands belonged to a smallholder farmer tending a plot, plucking leaves under long mornings of mist and rain. Two leaves and a bud. Thousands of times. Smallholders account for about 60 percent of global tea supply.

The industry built on their labour is worth $19.5 billion a year and supports the economies of some of the world’s poorest countries. Yet the conditions that sustain that work – ecological, economic and climatic – are under growing pressure.

Tea is the most popular drink on earth after water. Global production reached 7.3 million tonnes last year, and per capita consumption continues to rise steadily. From outside, the sector appears healthy. Yet the millions of smallholder farming families driving that growth in China, India, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Uganda, Malawi, Rwanda and beyond need stronger support if the sector’s momentum is to endure.

The geography of tea production is also one of economic necessity, linked to patterns of dependence and rural livelihoods. Kenya is the world’s largest tea exporter. Sri Lanka, Uganda, Malawi and Rwanda rank among the global top 10.

In these economies, revenues from tea exports help finance food imports and sustain rural livelihoods across entire regions. The sector remains a major source of employment and income for millions of poor families worldwide.

That income is more fragile than the industry’s headline numbers suggest. International tea prices, adjusted for inflation, have been declining for four decades. The sector’s nominal value has expanded, while the real purchasing power of many producers has stagnated.

FAO has documented what this means at the household level: when farmgate prices fall, smallholder families reduce spending on food, education and healthcare.

Small producers also face limited market access, inadequate extension services, weak access to credit and technology, and persistent asymmetries in how value is distributed across the supply chain.

As production costs rise and price increases transmit unevenly through markets, many farming families struggle to generate sufficient returns to reinvest in farm renewal, climate adaptation or productivity improvements. These pressures heighten income volatility and make long-term planning increasingly difficult.

Tea production and processing are major sources of employment and income for women across East Africa and South Asia. When smallholder tea farming families prosper, women’s economic participation will determine whether that prosperity and stability hold.

Programmes that support women directly through training, market access and financial resources consistently produce stronger outcomes for both households and communities. In many tea-growing regions, women sustain not only household economies, but also the continuity of the knowledge and labour on which the crop depends.

For a smallholder farmer without savings or insurance, a lost harvest is not a temporary setback. It immediately affects household spending on food, medicine and schooling.

More efficient, inclusive and sustainable value chains, including greater local value addition and stronger producer participation in markets, are essential if the benefits of the growing tea economy are to reach both the people and the environments that sustain it.

Per capita tea consumption in many producing countries remains relatively low, meaning the sector’s growth potential is still substantial.

Ensuring the sector’s viability, however, requires more than rising consumption levels.

Smallholder producers need better access to finance, markets, technology, and climate adaptation support calibrated to their realities.

More transparent and balanced value chains, targeted investment that reaches women directly, and stronger incentives for reinvestment at farm level will determine whether the industry’s future growth will remain economically and socially sustainable.

The farmer who grew your tea will get up again tomorrow morning before sunrise. The future of the sector depends on ensuring this remains a viable livelihood option.

Kenya’s economy relies on informal workers: the mama fua washing clothes in people’s homes, the boda boda rider looking for fares, and the artisan who is paid in cash for yesterday’s work. Yet they are invisible to banks, insurers and lenders, who demand payslips, logbooks and predictable incomes.

Now, however, four young Kenyan women are addressing this issue with their fintech app, Jasho.

‘Jasho is a fintech tool built specifically for gig economy workers, including people with disabilities, who have been largely ignored by existing financial applications,’ says team lead Veronicah Anzimbu.

The idea for Jasho was conceived at the 2025 Absa GirlCodeHack, a pan-African hackathon with the theme of ‘Future-Proofing Africa: Innovation at the Intersection of FinTech, Cybersecurity, and AI’.

Over the course of 30 sleepless hours at Absa Towers in Nairobi, Veronicah, Faith Chemitai, Dorcas Kalaka and Mawia Katiwa developed a working prototype.

Faith trained AI models for income forecasting, credit scoring and expenditure analysis. Mawia handled the back end. Veronicah, an AI/ML associate engineer, oversaw integration. Dorcas sketched the user interface from scratch.

‘Faith spent around 10 hours training models and running different algorithms – including random forest – to see which performed best for the use case,’ recalls Veronicah.

Despite server crashes and integration errors, they presented a functioning minimum viable product (MVP) and won the Kenyan leg of the hackathon. At the Pan-African finals, however, they lost to Tanzania’s Tokiva Sisters, prompting them to resolve to turn their prototype into a product.

Currently, the team is onboarding a test cohort of between 50 and 100 users, all of whom are based in Nairobi.

‘No money is moving through the app yet – the current features don’t involve cash because we are still building user trust before enabling that functionality. Revenue is a post-launch concern. Once the app is live, we plan to generate revenue through transaction fees, insurance commissions, gig referrals, Sacco partnerships and other integrations,’ says Faith.

One behavioural pattern has already emerged during testing. ‘Users overwhelmingly prefer standing orders to voluntary contributions. Left to their own devices, they forget, but once automated, they persist,’ observes Mawia.

Beyond the wallet lies the innovation: AI models that learn from user behaviour. The app can forecast income dips, encourage savings and analyse expenditure.

For a mama fua, for example, it might issue a warning: ‘Your clients tend to travel in December. Your income may slow down. Consider setting aside more this month.’

A recent addition to the app builds on this, as Dorcas explains: “We have developed an expenditure analysis feature that provides users with a detailed breakdown of their spending habits – showing them where their money is going, how their spending patterns change over time, and what this means for their financial health. For workers who have never had visibility into their own spending, this is a big deal.’

The app also includes a community forum where gig workers can post and pick up work from each other.

‘A boda boda rider overwhelmed with deliveries can flag an available job for another rider in the network. It’s a small feature, but it demonstrates that the team understands financial inclusion is not just about saving and borrowing, but also about establishing the kinds of economic connections that informal workers are often excluded from,’ notes Veronicah.

Building a financial identity

‘But perhaps the most consequential thing Jasho is trying to do is build a financial identity for people who have never had one. In Kenya, access to formal credit is largely dependent on payslips, logbooks and consistent bank statements – documents that gig workers simply do not have. Banks do not have a model for a mama fua who earns Sh600 one day and nothing the next,’ she continues.

Jasho aims to develop this model from scratch. By tracking every transaction – money in, money out, savings patterns and chama contributions – through the app, it builds a verifiable financial record for each user. The team hopes to use this record to unlock credit through Sacco partnerships, rather than through predatory mobile lenders.

A mama fua who has consistently saved Sh10 a day for a year through an app that can vouch for her behaviour is a different kind of borrower to those that banks have traditionally been able to access.

‘We are also in early conversations with insurance companies regarding three product lines: health cover, life cover and income protection. This makes sense: an app that knows a worker’s income stability, spending patterns and savings history is exactly the kind of data an insurer needs to offer an affordable, relevant product to a population they have historically found too risky or expensive to reach,’ says Faith.

When the team mapped the existing fintech landscape in Kenya, they noticed something.

‘We looked at multiple fintech applications here in Kenya. And none of them has really incorporated people with disabilities,” Faith explains.

The team meets virtually often and in person once a week, coordinating via a WhatsApp group and meeting in Nairobi’s city centre when schedules allow.

The intellectual property has been submitted to the Kenya Industrial Property Institute and is currently under review.

‘We are also marketing within our local community, testing messaging and building early awareness.’ The response has been encouraging. People who work in the informal economy recognise the problem we are trying to solve because they experience it first-hand,’ says Dorcas.

Kenya’s Data Protection Act 2019 sets a clear standard in this area, and the team has been deliberate about its data policy: users consent to the terms and conditions when they sign up; data is neither sold nor shared; and if a user leaves the platform, their data is deleted.

Any data shared with the government or NGOs for policy purposes is anonymised before leaving the app.