Category: Business Daily

When Kenyan band, Jabali Afrika, was invited to record a song on an album by a Peruvian artiste, they would not have imagined that this was going to be their ticket to a second Grammy nomination.

The announcement of nominees for the 68th Grammy Awards last week caught the brothers, Joseck and Justo Asikoye, by surprise.

The album Herstory by US-based Peruvian singer-songwriter Flor Bromley, which includes her collaboration with Jabali Afrika, has been nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Children’s Music Album.

This is the second Grammy nomination for the Kenyan group after receiving their first in 2022 in the same category. ‘This time we are not rookies,’ declares singer-songwriter and producer Joseck.

‘The Grammys is the ultimate stage for the who is who in the industry, it is where you rub shoulders with the movers and shakers in this business and of course, our aim is to win this time.’

Interestingly, this collaboration with Flo Bromley is itself a product of an encounter at the Grammys three years ago. ‘We met Lucy Kalantari, an accomplished musician and producer in the family music space, at the 2022 ceremony in Las Vegas,’ recalls Joseck. ‘So, when she called us and said she needed our East African vibe on Flor’s record we were ready to go.’

Joseck and his brother bring their powerful vocals and throbbing percussions to the track I Run with My Heart (Fatuma’s Song). The song was inspired by Fatuma Roba, the Ethiopian athlete who was the first African woman to win the Olympic marathon competition at the Atlanta games in 1996.

‘You know in every vibe, we put our harmonies and percussions front and centre like we have always done through the years,’ says Justo.

Their trademark melodies are simple yet irresistible, arranged against the background of traditional drums and an array of African percussions.

Bromley psyches people to keep running ‘like a cheater’ while Jabali Afrika chant: ‘When you run you free your mind from the worries and the sorrows. Kimbia. Kimbia. Kimbia.’

‘Working with Jabali Afrika was an absolute joy,’ says Flor, whose name means ‘flower’ in Spanish. ‘Their sound brings so much life, colour, and authenticity to Herstory.’

The professionally trained musical theatre actor based in New York blends her Latin heritage with global rhythms and hails the group for capturing the spirit of Fatuma’s determination, courage and patriotism.

The song resonates with the album’s theme of honouring influential women from different parts of the world with each track celebrating empowerment, diversity, and leadership by connecting global cultures.

‘Music has no borders. Collaborating with Flor on this song allowed us to share part of our Kenyan identity and rhythm with children everywhere,’ says Joseck. ‘It is powerful to be part of an album that tells stories of women who are changing the world. That is how you inspire children through music.’

The album’s messages range from the rap of the title track which champions brave women who have defied historical gender biases to the rock-inspired call to action on climate justice, Anger into Action (Greta’s Song).

Among the other artistes featured on the album are 2022 Best Children’s Grammy winners, Alphabet Rockers, Peruvian-American percussionist Tony Succar, composer-pianist Charu Suri, and Looney Tunes Preschool Music.

‘This album is deeply personal, I created it for my daughter and for all the children out there who deserve to see strong, inspiring female role models leading the way,’ says Bromley.

The album’s producer, Kalantari, is a two-time winner of the Grammy Award for Best Children’s Music Album and has built her career on creating music to positively impact and shape young minds.

‘The family music network is a big platform with many diverse artistes,’ explains Joseck. His own group’s first major exposure in the US was showcasing their musical style on the iconic children’s educational TV programme Mr. Rodgers Neighborhood in 1996. ‘That appearance brought us to this space (family music), and it has now come full circle because today we are veterans of making this music.’

The group received a Grammy nomination in the Best Children’s Music Album category in 2022 for the album All One Tribe, a project that featured a diverse group of artists celebrating African American culture with family-oriented songs. Jabali Afrika’s contribution to the album was a soothing singalong called Mtoto Mzuri.

‘Our Grammy nomination is not a coincidence. We have released family music records every year since our first nomination, and the last of them was Lala Land collaborating with Pambo Afrika Chorus and (Iranian musician) Medhi Rabajian,’ says Joseck.

As members of the Recording Academy, the Asikoye brothers will participate in the final round voting for the Grammy Awards from December 12, 2025 to January 5, 2026, ahead of the annual ceremony known as the ‘biggest night in music’ on February 1, 2026.

‘We work toward more diversity in the award for Best African Music Performance,’ asserts Joseck, a reference to the domination by Nigerian Afrobeats artistee in that category. ‘Look at how Bien [of Sauti Sol] has been going about his business and tell me why he can’t be up there at the Grammys!’

Safaricom’s parent company, Vodacom, has ruled out splitting M-Pesa from the telecommunications unit and listing it separately at the stock market amid regulatory pressure.

Vodacom Group CEO Mohamed Joosub told investors during a Monday earnings call that the financial services business provides extra value to voice and data users, making it difficult to separate the fintech from the telecoms unit.

Investors sought to understand if the firm would follow rivals like MTN Group, which is separating Uganda’s mobile money business from the telecoms operation as it seeks to list the fintech separately on the Uganda Securities Exchange within the next five years.

In Kenya, the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has been pushing to have the cash-spinning mobile-money arm of Safaricom, M-Pesa, hive off.

Recently, the Treasury talked of a proposal to separate Safaricom into three units as part of a process that may include reducing the State’s 35 percent stake in the mobile-phone operator.

But Vodacom, which owns 40 percent of Safaricom, reckons there is value in the fintech and the telecom’s arm operating as a single unit.

‘We’re not looking to separately list the financial service businesses; we do see it intricately linked to our value proposition that we’re providing to the customer,’ Mr Joosub said.

‘In fact, we see it more closely linked and then coupling that with loyalty going forward. The positioning for us is that we have something very different to offer from a normal telco,’ he added.

Vodacom Group, also the parent to Vodacom South Africa, Tanzania and Egypt, has witnessed faster growth of its fintech arm, which generated annual revenues of Sh$2.2 billion (Sh284 billion).

Since its 2007 launch, M-Pesa has grown in double digits and is on course to generate half of Safaricom’s revenue.

Safaricom reported a 52.1 percent rise in its half-year profit to Sh42.7 billion, helped by a smaller loss in Ethiopia and M-Pesa’s double-digit growth.

Safaricom’s revenue rose to Sh199.9 billion in the six months to September, from Sh179.9 billion in the same period a year earlier, reflecting a 11.1 percent growth.

Revenue from M-Pesa rose to Sh88.1 billion from Sh77.2 billion previously, reflecting a growth of 14 percent.

It is now the firm’s largest unit and accounts for 42 percent of revenues.

Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi said an assessment had found that there would be ‘a huge benefit’ to the State from splitting the company into a telecommunications firm, a tower operator and its popular mobile-payments platform M-Pesa.

A final plan on breaking up the company and a reduction in the government’s stake has yet to be agreed and would require Cabinet approval to be implemented, Mr Mbadi said in September.

The CBK would like to see a Safaricom-M-Pesa split to better supervise the multi-billion shilling deals the mobile money platform processes, while leaving the telecoms business under the Communication Authority of Kenya’s oversight.

‘One of the factors that has been delaying the delinkage of M-Pesa mobile money from the rest of Safaricom is the tax liability, which is fairly significant in the order of roughly Sh75 billion and what to do with it,’ CBK Governor Kamau Thugge said earlier.

Vodacom reckons that it wants to deepen M-Pesa’s offering in Kenya, with its eyes on getting a larger piece of the insurance business.

‘So an example would be in South Africa, we have a very big insurance business and a lot of capabilities and platforms that we built,’ Mr Joosub said.

‘So now we’re using that as a centre of excellence to expand into more markets with Kenya and Tanzania being the two markets that we’ll focus on.’

In Uganda, MTN is splitting off its fintech unit into a separate entity and aims to list it on the local bourse in three to five years.

Under the reorganisation, MTN Uganda’s mobile money fintech business will be transformed into a separate entity majority-owned by MTN Group Fintech Holdings B.V, the fintech arm of MTN Group.

The goal is to see the independent fintech business list separately on the Uganda Securities Exchange (USE), alongside MTN Uganda, within a three- to five-year period.

The wealth of investors in the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) has increased by Sh1.04 trillion since the start of the year, in the wake of share price boom, cementing the bourse as the top asset class.

The Nairobi bourse has posted a 53.7 percent return so far and on course to close the year at the best performance in over a decade, following up gains of 34.7 percent in 2024.

Returns from stocks in the year so far are nearly five times higher than the second major asset class, asserting the dominance of local equities in the 2025 investment playbook.

The highest grossing money market fund has an annualised return of 11.71 percent, making it the distant second top asset class ahead of returns from the 364-day/one year Treasury bill, which came in at 9.3454 percent as of last week.

The average return from property sales meanwhile sits third, returning gains of 8.2 percent on an annualised basis as per data from Hass Consult third quarter property index.

Gains from land sales within Nairobi suburbs such as Muthaiga, Pangani, Kilimani and Kilileshwa meanwhile average to 6.27 percent.

Commercial bank fixed deposits currently fetch a lower return of 7.63 percent, while property rentals have left most investors in losses, averaging an annualised contraction of 1.3 percent.

Market capitalisation over the period has risen from a low Sh1.439 trillion at the end of 2023 to Sh2.981 trillion as at the close of trading on Tuesday this week.

More than three quarters of the NSE paper wealth increase sits in blue chip stocks such as Safaricom, Equity, KCB, EABL and NCBA.

The five stocks have recorded an increase of Sh475.9 billion, Sh71.5 billion, Sh84.1 billion, Sh51.4 billion and Sh140.8 billion respectively since the turn of the year.

Small cap stocks however remain in the green with Olympia Capital leading the way with gains of Sh173.6 million ahead of Express Kenya, Flame Tree Group, Uchumi Supermarkets and Eveready.

Sameer Africa Plc has led the way in overall gains as its stock price shoots by 488.4 percent, ranking ahead of the NSE, Home Africa, utility Kenya Power and TransCentury.

From being primarily consumers of global goods and services, Kenyans are increasingly seeking a stake in international capital markets.

Ndovu Wealth Management Co-Founder and CEO Radhika Bhachu explains the growing appetite for offshore investments and how fund managers are adapting to this shift.

Did you know government bonds can give you a pay cheque every month?

While the Treasury papers typically pay out interest just twice a year, smart investors use the bond laddering strategy for steady income each month.

In this episode, we’re climbing the ‘bond ladder’ with financial advisor and founder of Azara Wealth, Belinda Kiplimo. She breaks down how to build a bond portfolio – a ‘ladder’- where each step brings in reliable cash flow all year round.

The face of Kenya’s beef industry is slowly changing. Prolonged droughts, shrinking pastures, and erratic rainfall are forcing livestock producers to rethink how and where cattle are raised.

According to the State of the Climate Kenya 2024 report, the number of people facing food insecurity due to drought more than doubled from one million in July 2024 to over two million by early 2025, reflecting the scale of climate stress also devastating livestock herds.

Kenya’s beef herd, estimated at about 14 million head, supports close to 10 million livelihoods, yet production continues to decline as weather extremes intensify.

The result is a quiet shift toward feedlots, controlled systems designed to feed cattle efficiently and secure a steady beef supply despite environmental volatility.

Feedlots are Kenya’s most practical line of adaptation to a changing climate.

They enable producers to manage feed, water, and animal health in contained environments, helping stabilise output and meet the rising demand from urban centres where beef consumption continues to grow.

A recent mapping by Gatsby Africa shows steady growth of semi-intensive feedlots in Laikipia, Nakuru, and Kajiado, forming what is now viewed as the country’s emerging beef corridor.

The feedlot approach is not without its challenges. It requires a steady feed supply, reliable energy, skilled management, and access to affordable finance. Sustaining it calls for investment in forage production, irrigation, and feed formulation.

Well-managed feedlots, however, can lower emissions, protect livelihoods, and ensure a steady meat supply. Climate change has altered the rules of production, and the feedlot frontier may determine who adapts and who is left behind.

For many Kenyans, buying a car is no longer a luxury. It is a basic tool of survival. Yet, behind the wheel of aspiration lies a growing crisis; the rise of predatory car financing that is trapping ordinary buyers in endless cycles of debt and repossession.

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In Kenya today, owning a car has become almost essential. From online apps taxi drivers, small business owners ferrying goods, to parents ensuring school runs happen on time, vehicles have become a lifeline.

Yet, for most Kenyans, paying for one in cash is simply out of reach. At eDealer, eight out of every 10 cars sold on our marketplace are purchased through some form of financing. That means 80 percent of buyers depend on credit to achieve mobility.

We have, in many ways, become a kadogo economy , a nation of hustlers and micro-entrepreneurs. But this financial reality has opened the door to a darker one: the rise of exploitative lenders who thrive on the desperation of would-be car owners.

Most buyers begin their journey at the banks, only to be turned away for lack of payslips or formal income records. Locked out of mainstream credit, they turn to alternative microfinance institutions and private lenders.

These lenders promise flexibility and fast approvals, but the fine print tells another story. Many contracts are designed to ensure default rather than ownership.

Some financiers peg their ‘affordable’ interest rates to the US dollar, leaving borrowers who earn in shillings exposed to currency swings.

Others use fixed-rate interest models instead of reducing balances, so borrowers keep paying interest on the original loan even as they repay steadily.

Then come the punitive clauses: harsh penalties for late or even more outrageous, for early payment, with repossession triggered by even minor delays. Once the car is seized and auctioned, the buyer not only loses the vehicle but sometimes still owes money long after it is gone.

It is time for stronger supervision, clear interest-rate caps, and standardised loan disclosure formats that allow buyers to compare offers easily. Clients should understand what they are signing, in simple, everyday language.

Regulation alone will not fix this. The industry itself must step up. Dealers and online marketplaces should vet and partner only with financiers who uphold fairness and transparency.

Kenya’s goal of expanding auto mobility depends not just on affordability but on fairness. If financing remains predatory, the dream of car ownership will keep turning into a nightmare of repossessions and ruined credit.

At eDealer, we regularly advise clients to read the fine print and seek fair terms. However, many are desperate; they need the car to earn a living, whether as taxi drivers, delivery riders, or traders. When these clients later return devastated after losing their cars, it feels like a failure that extends beyond the lender. It reflects a system that prioritises transactions over trust, and profit over people.

This is not just a financial problem. It is a moral one. The auto industry cannot remain silent as Kenyans are stripped of dignity and hope under the guise of ‘credit.’ Every stakeholder including we the dealers, lenders, and regulators alike, must take responsibility.

The Central Bank of Kenya and Sasra have made progress regulating deposit-taking institutions. But the non-deposit-taking microfinance sector remains a wild frontier. Many of these firms operate without oversight, setting arbitrary rates and violating basic consumer rights.

We must make fairness and empathy our guiding principles. After all, a car is not just metal on wheels. It represents freedom, dignity, and opportunity. Let us ensure that every Kenyan who dreams of owning one can do so without being trapped by the fine print.

Safaricom-backed money market fund Ziidi has attracted nearly half of Kenya’s unit trust investors, revealing the dividend earned from tapping into its M-Pesa customer base.

Ziidi MMF, a partnership between Safaricom and three fund managers – Standard Investment Bank (SIB), ALA Capital Limited and Sanlam Investments East Africa Limited – ended September 2025 with 1.15 million customers, according to data from the telecoms operator.

This represents an estimated 47.9 percent of the 2.4 million individual investors in unit trust schemes as per Capital Markets Authority (CMA) data up to June 2025.

The number of active Ziidi investors has grown by more than twofold, from an estimated 130,000 investors at the end of September 2024.

The MMF’s assets under management (AUM) have grown by the same measure to reach Sh15.1 billion from Sh1.3 billion a year earlier.

Ziidi is, however, dwarfed by larger fund managers in terms of assets, ranking outside the top 10 schemes by AUM according to data available up to June 2025.

As of 30 June, the Sanlam Unit Trust Scheme was the largest collective investment vehicle, with an asset base of Sh113.6 billion and a market share of 19.1 percent.

Other large schemes were CIC (Sh93.3 billion), SIB (Sh77 billion), NCBA (Sh56.5 billion) and Britam (Sh41.1 billion).

Ziidi was ranked in fourteenth with an asset base of Sh10.2 billion, giving it a market share of 1.7 percent.

Other schemes with an asset base of more than Sh10 billion were Absa, Old Mutual, ICEA, Co-op, KCB, Jubilee, Etica and Madison.

Ziidi’s growing user base demonstrates the fund’s ability to leverage its Safaricom partnership to attract users from the M-Pesa mobile money service.

The MMF is integrated into the mobile money ecosystem, enabling investors to buy and sell units via the M-Pesa mobile application or through its USSD prompt.

The number of active Ziidi customers remains well below those using M-Pesa services, with Safaricom placing the number of its one-month active customers on its mobile money unit at 37.91 million.

This suggests that only around three percent of active M-Pesa customers use Ziidi.

Safaricom earned Sh100 million in revenues from Ziidi, representing about 0.6 percent of the MMF’s Sh15.1 billion asset base.

The telecoms operator does not reveal its earnings percentage from Ziidi or its revenue-sharing criteria with its three fund manager partners.

Ziidi MMF was approved by the CMA on November 27, 2024, after Safaricom dropped an earlier partner, Genghis Capital Limited, following the piloting of a different money market fund known as Mali.

The change resulted in a protracted dispute which saw the investment bank send a protest letter to Safaricom on December 3, following the discreet launch of Ziidi.

Mali was piloted in 2019, with most of the early investors being Safaricom staff.

Since Safaricom dropped Genghis Capital as a partner, the assets under management in the Mali MMF have been under pressure, ending the quarter to June 2025 at Sh2.3 billion.

The collective investment schemes (CIS) sector has continued to grow in recent years, buoyed largely by low capital entry requirements and double-digit returns, which have persisted for most of 2025 before subsiding to the high single digits.

Read: Why fund managers see unit trusts growth despite rates dip

CIS assets under management reached a record Sh596.3 billion at the end of June.

The number of CIS investors ended June at 2,463,491, up from 950,020 in June 2023.

‘The number of investors in the various CIS funds has continued to grow steadily over time, buoyed by increasing awareness in the market to save and invest, especially post-Covid era,’ CMA said.

‘In the last one year, for instance, the number of investors has grown from 1,109,050 in March 2024 to 2,463,491, representing an 81 percent increase.’

Kenya stands at the edge of a new kind of revolution, one powered not by politics or protest, but by skilled hands, sharp minds and a generation determined to build its future.

Across workshops, construction sites and energy labs, a quiet transformation is taking shape. Young people once dismissed as ‘unemployable’ are finding new confidence, new tools and new purpose, thanks to a bold effort to align education with industry.

For years, Kenya’s technical and vocational training system produced thousands of graduates each year. Yet employers complained that most lacked the practical experience needed in the workplace. Projects stalled, costs soared and productivity dipped.

Employers in the construction sector describe the gap as an everyday challenge.

‘We spend at least three extra hours daily retraining graduates on basic site work,’ says Manesh Shah, Director of Relcon Power Systems. ‘It costs companies close to Sh20,000 a month per trainee.’

At Realtech Plumbers, Director Nicholas Komu echoes that frustration. ‘Most new hires take longer to deliver because they’ve never worked under real construction deadlines,’ he says.

‘The discipline, speed and precision needed on-site can’t be taught in a classroom.’

But even as industries voice concern, a new approach is quietly rewriting the script.

SwissContact’s PropelA Dual Apprenticeship Programme is one of the most promising innovations in Kenya’s technical education.

Instead of sending students into the world after graduation, it places them directly in the workplace as they learn.

Students are jointly interviewed by schools and partner companies, then begin a rotation system, three weeks of practical industry training followed by one week of classroom instruction.

The National Industrial Training Authority (NITA) oversees assessments and certification to ensure graduates meet global standards.

‘The aim is to merge theory and practice from day one,’said Sharon Mosin, the Country Director of SwissContact Kenya. ‘When students learn and work at the same time, they develop confidence, skill and employability in equal measure.’

The results speak volumes: 80 percent of apprentices are retained by their host companies after graduation. This model mirrors Switzerland’s globally admired apprenticeship system, where industry and government share responsibility for training.

In Kenya, the firm partners with Don Bosco Technical College and more than 50 private firms, who pay stipends and school fees for trainees while offering mentorship through certified trainers.

‘The future of Kenya’s economy lies in skilled hands,’ says Ms Mosin ‘Our goal is simple, to move from learning to earning, so that every graduate leaves school ready for real work.’

Kenya’s rapid industrialisation has outpaced the capacity of its public Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions. For decades, schools focused more on exams than on experience. The result was a generation trained to memorise not to make.

‘Our education system has trained for exams rather than the market,’ Ms Mosin explains. ‘Industry and schools haven’t been speaking to each other. Most TVETs remain theory-heavy, and real work experience is left to chance during short attachments.’

With nearly seven in 10 Kenyans under 35, the stakes could not be higher. A 2020 Ministry of Labour survey found that more than half of firms in the informal sector struggle to find workers with essential technical skills, particularly in plumbing, electrical work and logistics.

The Federation of Kenya Employers’ latest report paints a similar picture: demand for skills in transport, logistics, electrical and construction trades is soaring, yet these remain the hardest positions to fill. In some sectors, up to half of technical vacancies stay open, stalling projects and driving up costs.

Among those benefiting is Dorothy Wando; a professional plumber at Realtech Plumbers Ltd. Her story captures what’s possible when opportunity meets preparation.

‘Before my apprenticeship, I had never handled a PPR welding machine,’ she says, smiling. ‘Now I can install systems on my own, understand fittings and even advise clients on the best materials.’

Ms Wando says her journey gave her confidence, skill and pride, three things she never associated with plumbing before.

‘I now see my work as a profession, not just a job,’ she adds. ‘It’s changed how I view myself and how others view TVET graduates.’

Her story is one of many reshaping perceptions about technical work. Once dismissed as a fallback option for those who didn’t make it to university, trades like plumbing, electrical work and carpentry are gaining respect as paths to stable, skilled and well-paying careers.

‘We’re building a generation that sees technical work not as a last resort, but as the foundation of national development,’ says Tobias Olando, chiefr excutive of the Kenya Association of Manufacturers. ‘These programmes are creating artisans who will power Kenya’s next wave of growth.’

Private sector players are also pushing to make the sector more inclusive. Nearly a third of the programme’s trainees are now women, a significant step in industries that were once male-dominated.

‘We dropped partnerships with schools that refused to admit female students,’ Ms Mosin says. ‘Now, our female graduates mentor new trainees. It’s about creating role models and proving that skill has no gender.’

As Kenya moves toward renewable energy and digital transformation, the skills gap is shifting too. The programmes FutureFit project trains youth for new opportunities in e-mobility, battery maintenance and smart-energy infrastructure, skills essential for a sustainable economy.

The organisation is collaborating with NITA and the Association of E-Vehicles in Kenya to develop a national curriculum for electric mobility mechanics, covering two-wheelers, four-wheelers and hybrid systems.

‘If we don’t prepare technicians for the green economy, we’ll repeat the same mistakes of the past,’ Ms Mosin warns. ‘The time to train for tomorrow is today.’

Private firms are already showing enthusiasm. Some companies have offered to fund entire training workshops within public TVET institutions rather than building their own schools, a model of partnership Ms Mosin believes is key to sustainability.

‘TVET and NITA must work under a single vision,’ she says. ‘When that happens, we won’t just produce graduates, we’ll produce problem solvers.’

With Kenya’s youth bulge and accelerating industrial ambitions, the country’s future rests on one question: can it turn its people into its greatest advantage?

The answer, as these stories show, is a growing yes. Every apprentice retained, every workshop upgraded and every stereotype shattered brings Kenya closer to a workforce that can compete and win on the global stage.

‘The question isn’t whether Kenya can compete internationally,’ Ms Mosin says. ‘It’s how fast we can prepare our people to lead that competition.’

Printing firms have declined to produce Grade 10 textbooks over an unpaid debt of Sh11 billion for Grade 8 and 9 books supplied to the government since 2022, a standoff that now threatens to derail the rollout of the competency-based curriculum (CBC) as it transitions to Grade 10 next year.

According to a spokesperson for the Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM), operations within its printing sub-sector have been severely constrained by the government’s failure to settle the massive debt, leaving printers unable to sustain production.

The first cohort under the CBC is set to transition to Grade 10 -the entry level of senior secondary school- next year, and failure to produce the required textbooks could disrupt the smooth continuation of the new education system’s implementation.

‘Due to non-payment by publishers, printers are unable to proceed with the production of Grade 10 textbooks, putting the implementation of the CBC curriculum at risk,’ the spokesperson told this publication.

‘The debt has strained the financial operations of printers and manufacturers, posing a significant risk to the continued rollout of the CBC curriculum especially for Grade 10 learners to transition to senior school in January 2026.’

The debt is owed to publishers, who are contracted by the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) to develop textbooks and supply them to schools.

Publishers, in turn, hire printers to produce the books, but only pay them once the government settles its own bills, which, according to KAM, happens only after the contracted quantities have been fully delivered.

KAM says publishers have not been paid for Grade 8 and 9 textbooks supplied since 2022, leaving them unable to pay printers. The unpaid bills have pushed printing firms into financial distress, forcing them to default on supplier credits and tax obligations.

Kenya’s textbook printing industry comprises 10 firms that jointly produce about 250 million books annually. Since 2019, they have printed more than 200 million textbooks for public schools under the CBC rollout.

The printers say that besides accruing supplier debt, they are also forced to borrow money to pay value-added tax, which is due by the 20th of every month, further straining their cash flow and raising their expenses.

KAM has urged the government to prioritise clearing the debt, issue letters of credit to publishers and printers to guarantee payment once contracts are fulfilled and fast-track the awarding of contracts given the lengthy production process.

‘The textbook production process requires a minimum of 60 days for printing and an additional 30 days for distribution. Issuing contracts on short notice disrupts cash flow, forcing both publishers and printers to rely on costly credit facilities,’ the KAM spokesperson said.

KICD declined to comment, saying it only contracts publishers on behalf of the Ministry of Education, which had not responded to inquiries by the time of going to press.

Last month, the Kenya Publishers Association faulted KICD for delaying the settlement of bills for already supplied books, which strained their relationship with service providers, including printers.