Category: Business Daily

With the passing on of Francis Thombe Nyammo at 86, Longhorn Publishers continues without the towering chairman who guided the firm for almost 50 years before exiting the board in November last year.

Nyammo, usually referred to as FT, had chaired the firm since 1977, guiding the publisher to list on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) in May 2012.

He held a direct stake of 5.88 percent in the publisher and had a beneficial interest in Pacific Futures and Options Limited, which holds a 12.85 percent stake.

He stepped down as chairman in November 2024, handing over to Ali Hussein Kassim on an interim basis. Mr Kassim then handed the role over to Githu Mugai, who has a beneficial interest in Halifax Capital Corporation Limited, which owns 5.01 percent of Longhorn.

Nyammo’s death on September 28, his 86th birthday, followed by his cremation the next day as he wished, marks a turning point for Longhorn.

The publisher must now chart its course through a changing business landscape under the stewardship of relatively new figures on its board.

Nyammo was one of the local investors who acquired shares in the company in 1993, when its previous owners, Longman UK, exited the Kenyan market.

He served as a Member of Parliament for Tetu Constituency between 2007 and 2013. He was a founding member of the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (Kepsa) and a long-serving member and past president of The Rotary Club of Karen. He was also a former managing director of Kenya Reinsurance.

Prof Muigai says Nyammo was ‘more than a chairman,’ ensuring that ‘every book we publish carries the weight of his passion for building brighter futures.’

‘He was the guiding light behind Longhorn’s journey as a Pan-African powerhouse in educational publishing. As a founding pillar of our organisation, he championed innovation, agility, and excellence, transforming Longhorn into a beacon of knowledge,’ said Prof Muigai in his tribute.

The Rotary Club of Karen described him as a major donor and a pillar of strength, a source of joy, and a true gentleman whose laughter and wisdom lit up every room.

Rotary Club of Karen president Linet Ayuko said: ‘FT aka Fun Times has indeed done his Full Time.’

Nyammo exits the scene at a time Longhorn has made several other changes in its top leadership. The entry of Prof Muigai as the chairman on December 19 last year was alongside Makenna Nyammo, the daughter of the late Nyammo.

Carrying her father’s legacy, she now sits on the boardroom as non-executive director, casting her presence in the shadow of the man who led Longhorn for nearly five decades – a reminder of the family’s imprint on the publisher’s leadership.

On September 30 this year, Maxwell Wahome stepped down as CEO. In his place, Longhorn announced the return of Simon Ngigi as acting CEO to ensure continuity. Mr Ngigi previously served as Longhorn CEO from 2015 to July 2018 before handing over to Mr Wahome.

In August of the same year, Longhorn appointed educationist Sara Ruto as a non-executive director, while Centum Investment – the top shareholder with 34.9 percent stake – resigned from the board.

Following Centum’s exit, Longhorn appointed Thomas Omondi as an alternate director.

Another new face on Longhorn’s board is Shikoh Gitau, who was appointed as an independent director in March 2024.

Longhorn hopes that these changes to the board will stabilise its operations as it continues to confront challenges such as piracy, rising demand for digital books, changes to the education curriculum, and competition from second-hand book sellers.

The firm cut its net loss by 58.4 percent to Sh237.9 million in the financial year ended June 2024, recovering from its worst performance (Sh571.33 million net loss in 2023) since listing on the NSE.

Last year, Longhorn divested from unprofitable textbook markets in Malawi, Zambia and Tanzania.

The government is set to face increased costs for external debt financing after taking up a new $1.5 billion (Sh193.8 billion) Eurobond, whose proceeds are partially earmarked for refinancing an existing, cheaper bond due to mature in February 2028.

The National Treasury said on Friday that the new bond has been issued in two tranches, one with a term of seven and the other 12 years, at interest rates of 7.875 percent and 8.8 percent, respectively.

While the Treasury did not disclose how the $1.5 billion bond value was split between the two tranches, it said that the weighted average interest rate on the issuance stood at 8.7 percent, meaning that the annual cost of servicing the debt stands at $130.5 million (Sh16.9 billion).

At the same time, Treasury Principal Secretary Chris Kiptoo said in a statement that the government had completed the buyback of a 10-year, $1 billion (Sh129.23 billion) Eurobond that was issued in February 2018, ahead of its 2028 maturity date.

This bond paid annual interest at a rate of 7.25 percent, or $72.5 million (Sh9.37 billion), making it cheaper than the replacement paper whose effective interest charge on a similar portion of $1 billion stands at $87 million (Sh11.24 billion).

The Treasury PS said that the buyback and new issuance were necessary to give Kenya fiscal breathing space by lengthening the maturity of debt that has a short period to redemption.

‘This is the third such transaction since 2024, and it shows the government’s firm commitment to managing debt more wisely, paying off loans on time, and protecting Kenyans from sudden repayment shocks,’ said Dr Kiptoo in his statement on Friday.

A notice published on Thursday by the London Stock Exchange (LSE), where the 2018 bond is listed, also noted that investors who participated in the bond buyback would be paid a premium of 3.75 percent on the face value of their securities, after the government priced the offer at $1,037.50 per principal bond unit of $1,000.

This price premium is seen as necessary to entice holders of the existing paper to roll over their holdings to the new bond.

The previous two buybacks have also seen the interest cost of the new bonds surpass that of the papers they are replacing.

In February 2024, the Treasury floated a $1.5 billion, seven-year Eurobond at a rate of 9.75 percent, with the proceeds used to partially repurchase Kenya’s debut 10-year, $2 billion sovereign bond that was issued in June 2014 at an interest rate of 6.875 percent.

The higher rate on the new bond resulted in annual interest of $146.25 million (Sh18.9 billion), which is higher than the $137.5 million (Sh17.8 billion) the government was paying on the 2014 issuance, despite the fact that the latter bond was larger in size by $500 million.

Similarly, the 11-year, $1.5 billion Eurobond issued in February this year to fund a buyback of a seven-year, $900 million bond sold in 2019 was priced at a higher rate of 9.5 percent, compared to the latter’s seven percent interest rate.

The 2025 bond pays investors annual interest of $142.5 million (Sh18.4 billion), compared to the $63 million (Sh8.1 billion) that was being paid on the retired 2019 bond per year.

Had the government limited its uptake on the new bond to $900 million to match the buyback paper, the interest rate difference would have been equivalent to Sh2.9 billion.

Billionaire investor Baloobhai Patel has bought an additional 28.4 million shares of Absa Bank Kenya with a current market value of Sh625.9 million, entrenching his position as the bank’s top individual shareholder.

Mr Patel bought the shares in the eight months ended August, during which time his stake increased to 1.72 percent, up from 1.2 percent in December 2024.

Regulatory filings show his ownership increased to 93.4 million shares worth Sh2 billion based on Absa’s closing price of Sh22 on Thursday.

This was up from the 65 million shares he held in December 2024.

The bank shares have rallied by 16.7 percent since the beginning of the year, with investors attracted by the lender’s higher dividend payout and profit growth.

The bank has been increasing its dividend payout per share by Sh0.2 each in each of the last four years, thanks to improved earnings.

Last year, the bank paid a dividend of Sh1.75 per share, meaning Mr Patel was entitled to a dividend of more than Sh113 million before a five percent withholding tax.

Absa maintained an interim dividend of Sh0.2 per share when it announced its results for the half year to June 2025.

The interim dividend is payable on or before October 15 to shareholders who were on its books as of September 19.

When he appeared before Parliament in June, National Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi lamented the high public debt service costs incurred in January, February, May and July, stating that they were causing cash flow constraints for the exchequer.

January and July have stood out in terms of debt servicing for the last six years due to repayments of about Sh60 billion for the standard gauge railway loan to China.

However, rising debt service costs for February that are now in excess of Sh100 billion have also become a concern for the Treasury, mainly tied to large outstanding stocks of Eurobonds and domestic bonds totalling Sh1.66 trillion.

These debt charges, according to the National Treasury, put the government in a tight fiscal spot, given that it also needs to fund other recurrent costs, such as salaries for public servants amid persistent revenue collection shortfalls.

‘There are some months which are very bad, especially where we are repaying loans. We have challenges in January and February, and May and July because we repay debt, capitation to schools of more than Sh50 billion in January.and remember every month we pay Sh80 billion in salaries, yet revenue collection in a month is averaging about Sh200 billion,’ Mr Mbadi told MPs in June.

‘Constraints would be on cash flow challenges especially where funding is from the government and where we fail to meet revenue targets by Kenya Revenue Authority.’

The February issuances are now emerging as key targets for the Treasury’s early refinancing plans through bond buybacks and switch bonds, in order to spread the service costs to other months.

Last week, the Treasury completed the buyback of a $1 billion (Sh129.23 billion), 10-year Eurobond issued in February 2018. The bond was sold as part of a $2 billion issuance, which also included a 30-year tranche maturing in 2048.

The buyback is being financed using the proceeds from the sale of another $1.5 billion paper sold on Friday at an average rate of 8.7 percent on two tranches.

Overall, the government has $5 billion (Sh646.2 billion) worth of Eurobonds on its books that were issued in February, meaning that their semi-annual coupons are paid out in February and August of every year until maturity.

These papers, which account for two thirds of the country’s total stock of $7.41 billion outstanding Eurobonds, cost the government $221.9 million (Sh28.7 billion) in semi-annual interest charges.

World Bank data shows that other external debt obligations that fell due in February this year totalled $290 million (Sh37.5 billion). They included payments of about Sh21 billion to the Trade and Development Bank (TDB), Sh9.3 billion to the World Bank, Sh2.6 billion to the African Development Bank (AfDB) and Sh2.2 billion to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

At the same time, the State is spending Sh70.9 billion every February and August in interest payments to holders of Sh1.013 trillion Treasury bonds that were issued in the two months.

The securities include an 8.5-year infrastructure bond (IFB) issued in February 2024 at a rate of 18.46 percent, that has an outstanding value of Sh240.3 billion, a 19-year IFB sold in February 2022 at 12.97 percent with an outstanding value of Sh194 billion, and a Sh103.4 billion 10-year bond that was issued in August 2016 at an interest rate of 15.04 percent.

According to its recently published annual borrowing plan, the Treasury has lined up the 10-year 2016 paper for a switch bond issuance on October 13. If successful, this will transfer the outstanding value to a new bond with a maturity period of between 10 and 15 years, thereby sparing the government from making a bullet payment of Sh103.4 billion in August 2026.

For Kenyan-born British artist James Vaulkhard, art has always been the essence of his existence. He grew up in the rolling hills and tea plantations of Tigoni, a place whose lush landscapes now take centre stage in his maiden exhibition in Nairobi.

James studied art history at Leeds University in the UK before pursuing classical training at Charles Cecil Studios and Studio Della Statua in Florence, Italy. There, he immersed himself in an Italian system of portraiture and figurative painting that valued rigour and discipline.

He recalls months of intensive classes where students would spend a full year working in one medium, on live models, sometimes nude, while learning to master proportions, form, light and shadow. He also taught younger artists during this period. However, James felt the pull to take a different path, one where his own voice would be the muse, the ruse and the fleeting inspiration of his work.

‘I never wanted to be a classically societal portrait artist,’ he says. ‘I envisioned Florence as a foundation. When I moved to the UK, I used that experience to bend and break rules and to develop my own style. Portraits brought in money, but my dream was always to create and sell work that spoke in my own language.’ Exhibiting frequently in London, he worked to ‘deprogramme’ himself from his classical heritage, which, though invaluable, risked becoming a creative cage.

That transformation required grit.

‘When I applied for school in Florence, I was warned about getting sucked into a tradition and discipline that had stood for centuries,’ he recalls. ‘I knew I wanted the foundation, but I also knew I would constantly experiment from the very beginning. I was, however, doing a few classical portraits and commissions over time just to stay afloat as a young artist.’

London gave him opportunities to push his boundaries. Then came the Covid-19 lockdowns, which provided uninterrupted time to paint. ‘I became maniacal with my work,’ he says. ‘By the time sanity returned to the world, my own style had started to take shape.’

His Nairobi exhibition marks a return to Tigoni, where his childhood among rolling tea plantations continues to inspire him. The landscapes, he explains, are challenging to capture. ‘I have always wanted to paint these tea farms, but their surreal nature makes them hard to translate onto canvas. The luminous greens lie flat like a carpet, almost like an ocean or desert. It can be difficult to make them work as a painting.’

In this series, James combines representational and abstract approaches. Tigoni’s hills are the main subject, but he also paints landscapes of Lake Naivasha and Msambweni, places that he enjoys revisiting. His layering of colours, sometimes deliberately unnatural, creates depth and vibrancy. Patterns emerge across the surfaces, suggesting both vastness and intimacy. Viewers sense open plains, light-filled horizons, and a quiet catharsis.

The portraits are inspired by Kenya, but in composition, James was also looking at the San Francisco Bay Area school of painters, including Richard Diebenkorn, Clifford Still and Joseph Amber, whose bold treatment of colour influences his work.

James’s connection to art began early. At the age of seven, his parents were already framing his watercolours, many of which still hang in their home. His skill was unquestionable, and over time, his work has grown to embrace narrative and historical elements. In his latest paintings, though narrative recedes, African landscapes remain central, an ode to place and memory.

The biggest lesson across his journey, he says, has been faith. ‘Art is not easy, not even as a hobby. It can be frustrating. But having the courage to take risks, even when things do not go as planned, always leads somewhere.’ James has seen every side of the artist’s life. At 18, he sold his first painting – a mural of a Pokot herdswoman – for about Sh17,000. Nearly two decades later, he sold his most expensive painting for Sh3.3 million. His exhibition at the One Off Art Gallery features works priced in the range of Sh232,000 and Sh1.1million.

Though his career has taken him from Florence to London and now back to Nairobi, his practice remains a balance between experimentation and discipline, freedom and foundation. He continues to push his style forward, layering colours and patterns in search of both harmony and disruption, abstraction and representation.

His return to Tigoni, he says, feels inevitable. ‘The landscapes have always been calling. I think I needed the years of training, experimentation and failure before I could even attempt them.’

What stands out in James’s story is not only the technical evolution of his work but also his determination to live by his own vision. He has resisted the pull of purely commercial art, choosing instead to forge a style that is personal and resonant. His art bridges two worlds – the classical discipline of Florence and the luminous freedom of the Kenyan landscape – each shaping the other.

It is this tension that makes his current exhibition compelling. The works are not just portraits of place but explorations of memory, colour and self-discovery. They carry the discipline of tradition while embracing the freedom of experimentation.

James is quick to emphasise that the process is ongoing.

His Nairobi exhibition is not a culmination but another step in his evolution as an artist. Each canvas reflects both his roots and his restlessness, his grounding in technique and his refusal to be confined by it. In his own words: ‘It does not always go to plan, but it always leads to something.’

The exhibition runs until the end of October.

Globally, blue economy, covering everything from fisheries and aquaculture to shipping, offshore energy, biotechnology, and coastal tourism, is valued at more than $ 1.5 trillion annually and is projected to double by 2030.

Beneath these sweeping figures, however, lies a stark truth: the bulk of activities is carried out by Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). They are the fishers, processors, boat builders, seaweed farmers, and eco-tourism operators who keep local economies alive.

Yet, these enterprises struggle to secure the financing that would allow them to scale, modernise, and compete fairly in a changing economy. Traditional banks often view MSMEs as high-risk clients, especially because many operate informally, with few financial records or collateral to secure loans.

Seasonal earnings tied to fishing cycles or tourism flows do not match rigid repayment schedules. High interest rates and bureaucratic requirements end up shutting out many entrepreneurs before they even begin the loan process.

This financing drought has consequences. Without affordable credit, MSMEs cannot invest in modern storage facilities, ice plants, or processing equipment that would cut losses. They cannot adopt climate-smart practices such as solar-powered cold rooms or sustainable aquaculture techniques.

As a result, livelihoods remain precarious, post-harvest losses remain high, and unsustainable practices persist. The gap between the promise of a blue economy and the lived reality of coastal communities continues to widen. Yet, there are glimpses of what is possible when finance reaches the grassroots.

Seychelles pioneered the world’s first sovereign blue bond in 2017, raising funds to support small-scale fisheries. Belize and Cabo Verde have pioneered debt-for-nature swaps, freeing up resources for marine conservation and community enterprises. Across East Africa, digital platforms are emerging to connect fishers directly to buyers, giving them stronger bargaining power and building financial records that make them more attractive to lenders.

In West Africa, solar-powered cold storage hubs, funded through blended finance, are reducing spoilage, increasing incomes, and creating creditworthy business models.

What these examples show is that innovative financing for the blue economy is possible when systems are designed with MSMEs in mind.

Banks and investors can adapt their products to the unique rhythms of coastal businesses, offering flexible repayment schedules that align with seasons, or using community-based savings groups and warehouse receipts as alternative forms of collateral.

Development partners and governments can step in with credit guarantees and concessional financing that lower the risks for lenders, making small loans more viable.

At the same time, capacity building is essential. Many coastal MSMEs lack the bookkeeping or formal business plans that lenders require.

Training in financial literacy, support for cooperatives, and digital record-keeping tools can help small enterprises become more bankable without stripping away the resilience that comes with their community-based structures. Investing in shared infrastructure, such as cold storage hubs and processing facilities, could also help reduce risks and attract financing.

Beyond financing instruments, enabling ecosystems are vital. Governments can strengthen policy frameworks that prioritise MSMEs, while impact investors and blended finance vehicles can design products that balance risk with sustainability outcomes.

Technology such as mobile money, blockchain traceability, and digital marketplaces can improve transparency and build credit histories, while better data on MSMEs’ contributions will make their value more visible to financiers.

Crucially, financing must also be inclusive, ensuring that women, the youth, and indigenous communities, often at the heart of coastal economies, gain equal access to opportunities in the blue economy.

The blue economy is already a reality, but it remains fragile under pressure from overfishing, climate change, and rising sea levels.

Expanding access to finance for MSMEs delivers a dual benefit: more resilient livelihoods and healthier ecosystems. Targeted investments in fisher cooperatives, women-led seaweed enterprises, and sustainable aquaculture creates ripple effects that strengthen communities, safeguard marine resources, and build a more resilient global economy. Policymakers and financiers have a choice to make. They can continue to overlook MSMEs in favour of large-scale projects, or they can recognise that the future of blue economy rests on small enterprises.

They may be modest in size, but their collective impact is vast. With the right financing, MSMEs can truly anchor the blue economy ensuring that the ocean remains a source of wealth, culture, and opportunity for generations to come.

Kenya has launched a buyback of the $1 billion (Sh129.23 billion), 10-year Eurobond that is due to mature in February 2028, looking to avoid the pain of a bullet payment on the debt.

This will be the third early repayment of a Eurobond by the government in the last two years, which is part of the Treasury’s debt management strategy of directly refinancing large upcoming maturities with new bonds of longer tenor.

As reported in the Business Daily this week, the Trade ministry has at last acknowledged the devastating impact of the 17.5 percent Export Promotion Levy on clinker and steel billet imports. This policy, in place for over two years, has severely hindered two crucial economic sectors.

Cabinet Secretary Lee Kinyanjui’s appeal to Parliament for its repeal is not merely a policy reversal; it represents a vital lifeline for thousands of jobs, a clear rejection of monopolistic cartels, and a demonstration of decisive leadership. For this, we express our profound appreciation.

Introduced in July 2023 under the guise of boosting local production, the levy was presented as a patriotic measure to foster domestic industries. However, it quickly devolved into a classic case of policy capture, where powerful interests within government and the private sector manipulated public policy to solidify their dominance. Clinker, a crucial raw material for cement, has become prohibitively expensive for cement manufacturers. This led to factories operating at a mere 60 percent capacity, resulting in a staggering 7.9 percent drop in national cement production last year alone-a loss of 763,500 tonnes (over 15 million, 50kg bags equivalent annually).

Exports to key East African markets like Uganda and Tanzania plummeted by nearly 50 percent, eroding Kenya’s competitive edge and inflating building costs.

The same 17.5 percent levy on billets and other imports stifled downstream manufacturing, drove up prices for reinforcement bars and rods, and triggered widespread job losses as mills scaled back operations.

What was touted as an ‘export promotion’ tool benefited only a select few, creating artificial scarcities and unhealthy rivalries that disadvantaged smaller players and betrayed the very industries it claimed to protect. The official statistics, while alarming, only hint at the true extent of the damage. They fail to capture the hundreds of micro, small, and medium enterprises that were utterly destroyed by this levy, particularly in the production of steel wire products like nails, barbed wire, and mesh.

The monopolistic environment it fostered forced these small operators to procure raw materials in extremely large, dollar-denominated minimum order quantities, effectively pricing them out of existence overnight.

Consider the heartbreaking example of a company in Kikuyu Constituency, where the owner had invested Sh300 million from his retirement savings and the sale of properties. Employing 300 people and contributing significantly to local livelihoods, this company was forced to shut its doors after the levy hit, leaving its workers jobless. This is just one of thousands of employees whose dreams were deferred due to misguided policy.

This was no innocent oversight. Previous occupants of the Trade docket, armed with extensive data on the levy’s destructive ripple effects, chose inaction and convenience.

The minister’s forthright admission that the levy has created an unfair market marks a refreshing departure from this pervasive malaise.

For many banks, lending to small businesses is always seen as a risky affair. But Prime Bank, now with three decades of betting on small businesses, explains how it finds the sweet spot in an area where many large banks have struggled.

Prime Bank CEO Rajeev Pant spoke to Business Daily about the power of consistency, specialisation, staying close to customers and avoiding risky bets, and how this has offered a formula to keep loan default rates at below three percent against the banking sector’s over 17 percent.

After Parliament approved the plan to sell 65 percent of the government stake in Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC), the deal now looks like a foregone conclusion. The National Treasury expects to raise approximately Sh100 billion from the transaction.

The language used by officials to frame the policy is telling. This is not ‘privatisation’ in the ideological sense of rolling back the frontiers of the state. Instead, it is described as ‘liability management;-a tool to raise cash, restructure the balance sheet, and contain public debt. The narrative is that Kenya is not selling assets out of conviction but out of necessity.