Category: LOCAL

Fans of LG products in Kenya are set for a delightful surprise as LG Electronics East Africa launches its highly-anticipated Black Friday campaign, which will run for the entire month of November. This special promotion promises substantial discounts on a wide range of LG products, making it the perfect opportunity for customers to enhance their homes and lifestyles with premium electronics.

As part of the Black Friday campaign, LG is extending its generous discounts to those who visit its Brandshops, ran in partnership with accredited distributors Opalnet, Hotpoint, and retail partners across the country. Customers across Kenya can from November 1 – 30, 2023 take advantage of these incredible offers and elevate their home entertainment and appliance experiences.

Throughout the campaign, customers will enjoy discounts ranging from Ksh.3,000 to KSh.25,000 on a diverse selection of LG items. This includes its line of TV sets, refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners, and sound systems.

“We are excited to bring our customers this exclusive Black Friday promotion, where they can save big on the latest LG innovations,” said LG’s Managing Director for East Africa, Dongwong Lee.

“This is a fantastic opportunity for consumers to experience the exceptional quality and performance that LG is known for, all at significantly reduced prices.”

LG has earned a reputation for its commitment to innovation, product quality, and customer service. The Black Friday campaign reflects its dedication to providing value to its customers and making its high-quality products more accessible.

By Jaco Viljoen, Group Chief Executive Officer – First Capital Bank

 

Around the world, banks form the foundations of any economy by providing critical services that enable payments, working capital to grow businesses, finance to buy assets, interest on savings and investment accounts, and more.  However, when looking at the sector, we must remember that banking isn’t just about numbers and profits, it’s also about improving lives and communities.

 

Although recognised for its importance in providing financial services like cash management, payment processing, and hedging structures to a diverse clientele of small and mid-sized enterprises to large corporations, the greater impact of corporate banks is often overlooked. This is particularly true for domestic African corporate banks that play a significant role in empowering people, businesses, and communities.

 

While they, of course, meet the financial needs of corporate entities, these banks also help to deepen the financial development of the region, strengthening financial markets to build an environment that is more attractive to investment. Ultimately, corporate banks facilitate long-term economic growth by enhancing the ability of  firms and businesses to invest in long-term and seemingly risky initiatives.

 

While corporate behemoths and global titans often take up the spotlight in the banking world, homegrown African corporate banks can provide substantial benefits to domestic economies. By leveraging their deep knowledge of local customers and the local environment, along with their expertise of financial systems across the continent, domestic pan-African banks are already driving transformative financial and social impact. They’re doing this by providing finance that would most likely have been declined by someone “sitting far away” as well as ensuring a quick turnaround which enables faster growth.

 

And, as economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa has slowed to 3.3% in 2023 compared to 4% in 2022, ensuring that domestic corporate banks on the continent are agile, resilient, and innovative, will be key to the growth and expansion of African economies.

Driving growth in the entrepreneurship ecosystem

The continent’s startup and entrepreneurship ecosystem is growing rapidly, even going against global trends of a slowdown, with African startups raising approximately $1.5 billion in the midst of the pandemic outbreak in 2020, over $4 billion in 2021, and an estimated $4.5 billion in 2022.

Many entrepreneurs on the continent, particularly those in the SADC region, are still faced with significant challenges, while a large portion of emerging entrepreneurs and small businesses continue to fail for a variety of reasons including the inability to raise the capital to scale their businesses. However, a stronger presence of local corporate transactional banks will support the continued growth of Africa’s entrepreneurship ecosystem by improving access to funds through channels such as business loans and lines of credit.

For entrepreneurship to thrive, more disciplined financial management is required. And, because domestic corporate banks understand the challenges and complexities of running a business in the local market, they can be relied on as trusted advisors helping entrepreneurs to navigate areas such as business planning, market analysis, and mergers and acquisitions.

Fostering increased cross-border trade

According to the World Trade Organisation, global trade volumes and value have ballooned in recent years. In fact, the value of world merchandise trade was recorded at $25.3 trillion in 2022 while the value of  commercial services trade sat at $6.8 trillion and digitally delivered services exports were estimated to be worth $3.82 trillion in the same year. Moreover, trade between Africa and the international community has grown exponentially in recent years.

 

Intra-African trade, however, continues to lag behind global trade growth trends. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) notes that intra-African trade stands low, at just 14.4% of total African exports. But, there remains a significant appetite for cross-border trade as indicated by the fact that informal cross-border trade on the continent is a source of income for 43% of the population in Africa.

 

By facilitating the growth of African corporate banks on the continent, we will in turn be able to increasingly facilitate internal trade across Africa by easing financial barriers and capitalising on the significant knowledge of the regulatory landscape of markets in the region that these banks possess. More than this, domestic corporate banks will help to reduce the risk of cross border trade.

 

Enabling enterprises to scale sustainably

By simply ensuring the security of finances and financial services to businesses and enterprises across the continent, African corporate banks will enable businesses on the continent to invest in their growth, scale up as needed, and hire more people resulting in reduced unemployment for the fastest growing population in the world. Essentially, by enabling the growth of small and medium-sized businesses, this will in turn lead to the creation of more job opportunities, resulting in the upliftment of millions of people out of poverty, greater social cohesion and economic growth, and ultimately position Africa as a key part of the global labour market.

Ensuring the ease of doing business

The corporate banking sector is foundational to improving the credibility of businesses. At the same time, corporate banks have a role to play in opening African businesses to greater investment opportunities while reducing the risk of doing business on the continent due to weak currencies, political instability, inclement weather conditions and soaring unemployment rates.

Essentially, these banks ensure the ease of doing business in Africa by making financial transactions easier and enabling businesses to adapt to rapid changes.

 

Be that as it may, the success of African corporate banks is heavily dependent on their flexibility and agility as well as placing a strong emphasis on service and authentic customer relationships. Purpose-driven leadership and robust strategic partnerships are key elements needed within domestic banks, to drive tangible societal change and a positive impact on communities. Through strategic partnerships, African corporate banks will be able to benefit from the expertise, management abilities and best practice policies of those they collaborate with.

 

As such, it’s clear that an unwavering purpose is not only central to African financial institutions achieving audacious growth, but also the development of Africa beyond a resource-rich continent and into a new era of prosperity.

The Parliament on Tuesday 31st October 2023 directed the Blockchain Association of Kenya (BAK) to draft the Virtual Assets Service Providers Bill within the next two months. S.A KAKAI, director of legal affairs indicated that:

“This milestone is a win for us. It marks a pivotal step in forging a more robust connection between the digital assets sector and regulatory bodies. Our unwavering commitment is to foster a cooperative approach in shaping a regulatory framework that not only spurs innovation but also aligns seamlessly with the government’s agenda. Kenya, often referred to as Africa’s ‘Silicon Savannah,’ has now reclaimed its prominent status and we shall establish ourselves as the Digital Assets Hub of Africa. In the 2021/2022, Kenya’s digital assets ecosystem witnessed transactions close to $20 billion, and we have every reason to believe that this move will catalyze even greater growth and adoption.”

“This is our mandate as the Finance and National Planning Committee. To forge the way forward on how to work together going forward we are the peoples representatives you included.” Chair Kuria told BAK as he read to the house’s standing orders and adjourned the meeting.

The BAK further physically and orally protested the Digital Asset Tax (DAT) under Kenya’s Finance Bill 2023 to the National Assembly’s Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning.
BAK leaders who faced the Committee delved deep into the legal and regulatory challenges faced by digital asset companies in Kenya.
They said that the legal framework in Kenya has serious bottlenecks that have made it hard for them to pay some taxes like the Digital Asset Tax.
Hard pressed to tell members of the committee how are they able to pay other taxes like Corporate Tax and PAYE, BAK says they use HRs and other avenues but on the Digital Asset Tax, they admitted they had not been able to pay the tax since the DAT was not practical to implement in its current format.
It was a major highlight of the session as the members of the committee wanted to know why the Association has not been remitting it to KRA.
The new tax, which was take effect from September 1, is part of the many taxes introduced in the Finance Act 2023, with some focused on expanding the tax net in the digital space. The tax provisions outlined in the already-signed act seek to create extra income of up to $2 billion for the Kenyan government.
BAK however said they have moved to court to seek clarification on the matter adding that what they are seeking is goodwill from the govt as they are ready to pay the tax.

BAK has however committed to have stakeholders engagement with the relevant authorities in govt, a National Digital Asset Policy, a Tax Framework, a consumer protection framework and onboarding regulatory sandbox.

“We need to deliberately and collaboratively work with the government to come up with better regulations”, BAK officials told the committee while admitting at the same time that they are working “unregulated” in the Kenyan market.

Committee Chair Kimani Kuria, Vice Chair Benjamin Lagat, Kitui rural Mp David Mboni and other members wanted to know more about Blockchain markets to which BAK members said in the next meeting, they will need more time to explain that to the members.
The committee members advised BAK to ensure to work within set regulations as they will also endevor to ensure to work and see to it that there are laws regulating the same in the country.
The Parliament further directed the BAK to draft the Virtual Assets Service Providers Bill within the next two months. S.A KAKAI, director of legal affairs indicated that:

“This milestone is a win for us. It marks a pivotal step in forging a more robust connection between the digital assets sector and regulatory bodies. Our unwavering commitment is to foster a cooperative approach in shaping a regulatory framework that not only spurs innovation but also aligns seamlessly with the government’s agenda. Kenya, often referred to as Africa’s ‘Silicon Savannah,’ has now reclaimed its prominent status and we shall establish ourselves as the Digital Assets Hub of Africa. In the 2021/2022, Kenya’s digital assets ecosystem witnessed transactions close to $20 billion, and we have every reason to believe that this move will catalyze even greater growth and adoption.”

“This is our mandate as the Finance and National Planning Committee. To forge the way forward on how to work together going forward we are the peoples’ representatives you included.” Chair Kuria told BAK as he read to the house’s standing orders and adjourned the meeting.

By [Gorata Ogotseng Corporate Communications Manager], Norsad Capital

 

Ask most entrepreneurs what their biggest challenge is and there’s a good chance they’ll list access to investment and funding among them. That’s particularly true in many of Africa’s biggest entrepreneurial markets too.

 

In a survey released by the Entrepreneurs’ Organisation (EO) South Africa earlier this year, for instance, nearly half of South African entrepreneurs said they don’t get enough funding from the public or private sectors. Another survey released by East Africa Com, meanwhile, saw 59% of East African entrepreneurs list a lack of access to investors as a significant business barrier. Similarly, a 2021EFInA report found that 70% of Nigerian startups and scale-ups struggled with access to finance post-COVID-19.

 

As important as improving access to that funding is, it’s almost as critical that entrepreneurs identify the funding models best suited to their business needs. The wrong funding model can, after all, mean that entrepreneurs end up over-diluting their equity in the business or taking on too much debt. But what do those funding models look like? And what advantages does each model offer?

 

Debt vs equity

 

One of the first distinctions that all entrepreneurs should understand is the difference between debt and equity-based financing.

 

Debt-based financing simply involves borrowing money, usually at interest, from lenders. For some businesses, that may mean borrowing from traditional financial institutions such as banks. Others may instead go to private lenders. Regardless of how well or badly the business performs, the lent money must be paid back. That said, it does ensure that entrepreneurs retain a greater degree of control over their businesses.

 

Equity financing, on the other hand, involves selling ownership shares (equity) in the company to investors, such as shareholders or venture capitalists. While it doesn’t create an obligation to repay any money, it does mean that entrepreneurs end up with a reduced stake in the business. And because they’re part owners, they may not have a full say in how the business is run.

 

Choosing whether to take one approach or the other (or a combination of the two), largely depends on a company’s financial situation, risk tolerance, and its desire to maintain control or share ownership with external investors.

 

Beyond the basics

 

Beyond those basics, most organisations that offer funding will provide a range of funding models. These include, but are not limited to:

 

Senior debt finance

Senior debt is a company’s highest priority debt that must be repaid first during bankruptcy. This kind of financing is typically secured against some type of collateral (the company’s physical assets, for example) although its can also be unsecured. In the event of bankruptcy or if the loan goes into default, the collateral of a secured senior debt facility may be sold to cover the debt. Unsecured senior debt holders can file claims against the company’s general assets.

 

Unitranche finance

Unitranche finance combines the various forms of debt held by a business into one loan. Under this form of financing, the borrower pays a blended interest rate and has a predictable repayment schedule that can be tailored to the borrower’s needs. Unitranche financing can enable medium-sized companies to access financing that would be impossible to get from a bank.

 

Second lien finance

Second lien debt is secured debt that ranks equally for payment with senior debt and shares the same security package. Second-lien loans are not debt subordinated to first-lien loans, only on the capital pledged to secure the loan. This means that in the event of bankruptcy, the second lien ranks behind senior debt in the receipt of proceeds from shared collateral.

 

Mezzanine finance

Mezzanine finance is a hybrid form of financing that includes aspects of debt and equity-based funding. In addition to being used for expansion or recapitalisation, mezzanine finance can be utilised to acquire other businesses, for management buyouts, and to minimise dilution of equity. Companies will usually consider mezzanine financing to finance business goals when they have reached their senior debt borrowing ceiling or want to preserve future senior debt capacity.

 

Choosing the right model

 

Knowing what these various models entail and what they’re used for should go some way to helping entrepreneurs figure out which one is best for them. That said, it’s worth breaking it down a little further. When deciding on a model to pursue, entrepreneurs should consider their capital needs, risk tolerance, how much (if any) ownership and control they’re willing to give up, the cost of the capital, and the negotiated terms offered by the lender or investor.

 

If the business has relatively low capital needs, for instance, a traditional bank loan or senior debt may be the best option. On the other hand, if the business is on an aggressive growth trajectory, it may be more inclined to take on a more high-risk form of funding such as mezzanine finance.

 

Fortunately, businesses aren’t on their own when it comes to making such choices. A good lending or investment institution will work with the company to figure out the best funding structure for it. Even with that assistance, however, it’s still important that the business undertakes a thorough financial analysis, interrogates the terms of each financing option, and makes a decision that aligns with the company’s goals and risk profile.