Category: Business Daily

An agricultural export promotion agency of the Indian government has lost its bid to stop a Kenyan trading company from branding its imported rice as ‘Basmati Rice’.

The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) wanted the Court of Appeal in Nairobi to overturn a decision by the High Court that allowed Krish Commodities Limited to register six trademarks bearing the word Basmati.

What’s the best way to buy a car – save up and pay cash, borrow from a bank, or lease hire? And is it better to sell and buy separately, or do a trade-in?

These are all valid and available options, with choice dictated on a case-by-case basis. Overall, there are five ways to get the things you want. Make them, steal them, barter them, pay cash, or get credit.

Those are life’s deals. There are no others. There is always a price to pay – the only option is in how and when you choose to pay it. This has been the case since Adam whittled woman out of a rib (make it), since club-wielding cave-man invented matrimony with violence (steal it), since JJ Hughes swapped Model T Fords for wheat crops in Uasin Gishu (barter), since the clink of the first cowrie shell in Gedi (cash), and since Dr Faust went on tick with Old Nick (credit).

Lawyers, accountants and salesmen have invented hundreds of different words to describe each of these processes in an attempt to bewilder, beguile and finally bedevil and behoof the benighted public to bethink them beneficent and by these parts to ensure the party of the second part has to pay the party of the first part such a huge part of his last part he’s got nothing left to part or party with.

“Make” embraces grow, manufacture, assemble, fabricate, construct…

“Steal” includes rob, burgle, thieve, defraud, embezzle, hijack, half-hinch, and some types of bribe/gift.

“Barter”, meaning swap, has been given fancy titles like trade-exchange; the word ‘inducement’ is in the vicinity.

And even plain-simple cash has notes and coins and cheques and debit cards and direct debits and standing orders and whatnot.

But the greatest creative skills have been reserved for different ways to describe credit.

The business of usury – so famously championed by Shakespeare’s trader of east Mediterranean extraction in an Italian town with wet streets – has been euphemised, bastardised, legalised and otherwise disguised by all manner of pecuniary poetry.

Colleagues borrow and give loans. There is I owe you [IOUs], and small things can be got “on tick” or on account. Bigger items require mortgages, lease hire, hire purchase, otherwise known as the “never-never” (leaving us unsure of whether the pain never starts or the paying never stops). The instruments of credit include pawn shops, overdrafts, credit cards, commercial papers, promisory notes, advances, drawing rights, loan sharks, refer-to-drawer scribbles, failure to get a second signature, the accountant is out at the moment, could you please send me another copy of the invoice, our computer crashed and we’re doing everything by hand, we’re waiting for a tax refund…

Call it what you like. Credit is credit. A get-now-pay-later system. And pay later must, by definition, mean pay more to finance the cost and the profit of a credit facility. It is that extra cost that distinguishes legitimate credit from theft or charity.

There is nothing new about the credit idea, nor the over-riding principle that it increases the price. Kenya’s motorists have been well aware of that for some time (approximately one century). However, they have been most familiar with the idea of buying a car from one person and borrowing the money to pay for it from somebody else.

That keeps things relatively simple. One deal on the price of the car. A separate deal on the price of the money. All clear-cut and clean from everybody’s point of view.

However, as almost everybody depends on credit to buy a car, motor companies could become dependent on finance companies to secure their sales levels and margins.

So, globally, the trend is for motor companies to offer their own finance schemes (they use their own resources or their huge corporate creditworthiness to borrow the money from financiers, and pass that on to their customers, at cost plus.)

So the motorist gets the car, and the credit from the same seller.

And that greatly increases the number of different ways credit can be packaged and promoted. Hot on the heels of come-ons applied to the car – like real discounts, or hidden discounts through inflated trade-ins, cashback, or such nonsense as “free” service – come gimmicks applied to the finance like no-deposit and low-deposit, zero interest periods, and pay-back deferrals; different names and games that affect tax liability, and so on.

In some ways, the co-ordination of all these elements by just one company maximises the potential for a special deal; but it also makes evaluation of that deal much more difficult because it is almost impossible to distinguish which part of what you are paying is covering which part of what you are getting, and therefore to calculate what’s a bargain and what’s a rip-off.

And the more bits and pieces that are rolled into the package, the better the bargain or the bigger the rip-off can be. The most all-inclusive motor package could, in theory, be the cheapest form of motoring. In practice, the most all-inclusive system is called car hire, and it is usually the most expensive form of motoring.

There are dozens of “new” schemes on the Kenyan market. None of them reinvent the credit wheel – but they all spin it in different ways. While the options proliferate and evolve, I offer no judgment, but here are a few principles to be going on with.

One: You are out there to buy a car, not a fancy finance scheme or bonus extras. So above all, select the vehicle first, on the vehicle’s merits. Your usage, your needs and values, your preferences.

Two: When you have chosen the right vehicle for your purposes, only then look at your different options for paying for it. Salesmen are often poor advisors – competitors make better research assistants.

Three: Whatever the sales pitch calls it, if you don’t pay in full and up-front, you are on a credit scheme. You are therefore buying not only the car, but the money with which to pay for it. Evaluate both purchases, separately, with equal care.

Four: There are some very good deals out there. But any deal that looks too good to be true, probably is. Caveat Emptor (Let the Buyer Beware) is not just a legal principle. It is good advice.

Finally, if it has anything to do with motoring (or any commercial human being, for that matter) mistrust the word “Free”. What the word actually means (‘you do not have to pay anything’) and what marketers mean when they use it (‘the cost has already been added to something you do have to pay for’) are not the same thing.

Investors in Kenya’s $1.5 billion (Sh193.8 billion) Eurobond issued last week were given a discount of Sh4.3 billion on the face value of the securities as the government sought to keep the interest rate on the securities below the initial levels demanded by investors.

A discount on a bond represents the additional return an investor will get on redemption of the security, assuming the paper is held to maturity.

Imagine stepping into a restaurant where you cannot rely on your sight to walk to your table or pick up your fork or knife, and instead, the aroma of food and the feel of cutlery guide you.

That was the experience at Dining in the Dark at Nairobi’s Karen Country Club – an event that let diners experience what it is like to eat out as a blind person.

Every October, Customer Service Week reminds us that service isn’t just about processes – it’s about people. This year’s theme, Mission: Possible, speaks directly to our reality: every customer interaction is a chance to build trust, loyalty, and long-term value.

The customer of today is different. They don’t buy products or subscriptions; they buy experiences. A flight is judged not just by time of arrival, but by the warmth of check-in and how staff handle disruptions.

A TV subscription isn’t only about channels – it’s about how simple it is to sign up, how smooth the payment feels, and how quickly help comes when needed. That’s why service can’t be treated as a department. It’s a culture. It’s the heartbeat of every touchpoint, from a WhatsApp chat to how we respond when a customer is frustrated. The companies which win are those where everyone – from the CEO to the newest intern – sees themselves as custodians of the customer.

Digitalisation has made service faster and smarter, but speed alone doesn’t equal satisfaction. When a customer is worried or upset, nothing replaces human empathy. The future lies in hybrid service: technology to handle the predictable, and people to handle the emotional.

Complaints aren’t problems to brush aside – they’re roadmaps to improvement. Every time a customer points out a broken journey, they give us insight to redesign better. The most forward-looking businesses are already using data to fix issues before the customer even notices.

This shift is visible everywhere. Service centres now focus less on routine transactions (which are now online) and more on solving complex issues and guiding customers.

Our frontline is no longer just transactional – they are brand ambassadors, educators, and problem-solvers. To succeed, we must continue investing in their training, tools, and empowerment. Loyalty today is earned through relevance. Customers expect to be seen, understood, and remembered. The boldest companies are already moving from personalisation to predictive service – experiences that feel effortless and intuitive.

In a tough economy, customer experience is not a ‘nice-to-have.’ It is the strategy. A delighted customer not only returns but becomes your loudest advocate.

Exceptional service sparks word-of-mouth marketing you can’t buy. And it starts with a culture that treats every challenge as a mission worth solving.

As we celebrate Customer Service Week under the banner Mission: Possible, let’s remember, this isn’t just a slogan. It’s a mindset. With the right culture, tools, and attitude, every interaction can be transformed into a moment of truth.

Because customer experience isn’t the next frontier of business success. It is the frontier.

Kenyans received stablecoins worth Sh426 billion ($3.3 billion) in 12 months to June 2024 revealing a growing appeal for the cash-backed cryptocurrencies in day-to-day local transactions.

This largely quiet entry of stablecoins to the mainstream has raised interest among not just banks and other payment providers but also businesses and individuals.

A Ugandan importer has sued a Mombasa-based bulk grain handling company, Bulkstream Ltd, demanding unconditional release of its cargo comprising 1,514 tonnes of wheat imported from Ukraine.

Pan Afric Commodities Ltd says it purchased approximately 2,837 tonnes of wheat, which was shipped to the port of Mombasa under a charter party agreement and was subject to a Bill of Lading, which was issued on September 21, 2018.

More than 190 motor vehicle owners have been allowed to demand millions of shillings from the government for blunders that protected United Insurance Company from settling claims arising from accidents after the insurer’s collapse in 2005.

In a precedent-setting decision that could expose taxpayers to major losses, the Court of Appeal said the government was responsible for the losses suffered by policyholders over the delay in implementing the Policyholders Compensation Fund in 2005.

The Treasury is eyeing a $4.2 billion (Sh540 billion) bonds for expansion of the standard gauge railway (SGR) and Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA), less than a year after it cancelled a deal with India’s Adani Group.

A Treasury brief seen by the Business Daily shows that it plans to raise $3 billion (Sh387 billion) for the extension of the SGR line from Naivasha to Malaba and $1.2 billion (Sh154.8 billion) for the expansion of the main airport through a securitised bond.

Kenya’s imports of second-hand clothes have continued to rise despite President William Ruto’s ambitious plan to revive the country’s cotton, textiles, and apparel value chains.

Latest official data shows that traders shipped in mitumba worth Sh14 billion between January and June 2025, marking a 3.7 percent jump over a similar period last year and extending a trend of increased imports.