A New Modernization Bid For JKIA

Hello 👋🏽 It's Brian from The Kenyan Wall Street.

In today's newsletter edition, new plans are underway to modernize the JKIA. This time, the government has opened up for bids to interested contractors.

Also, eyes will be on EAC leaders who will meet this week to rollout of a long-awaited single regional customs bond.

A New Modernization Bid For JKIA

By Brian Nzomo

After a bruising flirtation with Adani Group collapsed under sovereignty jitters, Kenya has quietly revived plans to modernize the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) reopening bids with the cautious language of “design-and-build” and the hopeful subtext of redemption. The airport, built for a gentler era of air travel, now strains under nearly nine million passengers a year, even as officials sketch visions of new terminals, smarter baggage systems, and an airport city rising from the dust. The urgency is not abstract: to the north, Ethiopian Airlines is backing a vast new gateway at Bishoftu that could one day handle up to 110 million passengers and further entrench Addis Ababa as Africa’s aerial capital.

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East Africa’s Single Trade Guarantee

By Fred Obura

When leaders of the East African Community gather in Arusha this week, much of the quiet anticipation will center on a technical reform: a single regional customs bond. For years, traders moving goods from Mombasa or Dar es Salaam inland have had to juggle a patchwork of national guarantees, a bureaucratic relay race that adds cost and delay at every border. The proposed bond would replace that maze with one shared transit guarantee, digitally recognized across member states. If it works as intended, the region’s trade corridors could begin to feel less like checkpoints and more like passageways.

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INSIGHT: Businesses Face Rising Cyber Risks Amid Talent Shortage

By Brian Nzomo

East African businesses are facing a growing digital danger: a shortage of skilled cybersecurity professionals that leaves even large firms exposed to costly attacks. Recent incidents, from SIM-swap scams in Uganda to surges in mobile banking fraud in Kenya, show that criminals are targeting the very systems now central to daily life and commerce. Despite these threats, few companies are running real-world drills or using AI-driven defenses, leaving gaps that could amplify small breaches into regional crises.

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Absa Bank Full Year Profit Grows By 10%

By Chelsy Maina

Even as interest margins came under pressure and income softened, Absa Bank Kenya PLC lifted full-year profit and raised its dividend, leaning on lower impairments and tighter cost control to steady returns.

Financial Snapshot :

🟢 Profit after tax rose 10% to KSh 22.9 billion, while earnings per share increased to KSh 4.22 from KSh 3.84.

🔴 Total operating income slipped 2% to KSh 61.4 billion, with net interest income down 6% amid margin pressure.

🟢 Non-interest income climbed 12% to KSh 18.1 billion, helping cushion the revenue decline.

🟢 The board approved a total dividend of KSh 2.05 per share, up 17%, as return on equity improved to 22.8%.

Read the financial analysis here »»»»»

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