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Dangote chooses Lamu over Tanga
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Good morning. It’s Brian from The Kenyan Wall Street.
Our top financial stories today :
Dangote has picked Kenya over Tanzania for a planned oil refinery.
After completing majority control of Safaricom, Vodacom is now asking shareholders to hand it the CEO appointment right too.
Kenya's transport regulator is moving toward minimum fares for ride-hailing apps.
Dangote chooses Lamu over Tanga for refinery
By Harry Njuguna
Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote has selected Lamu as the site for a planned 700,000-barrel-per-day oil refinery that could cost up to US$17 billion, a decision that ends Tanzania's hopes of hosting what would have been East Africa's largest fuel-processing project.
The planned facility would replicate Dangote's Nigerian refinery, one of the largest single-train refineries in the world, and would supply refined petroleum products across East Africa, a region that currently imports almost all its fuel and absorbs the full cost of shipping, foreign exchange pressure, and global supply shocks that come with that dependence.
The project also marks Kenya's return to the refining industry more than a decade after the old Changamwe refinery stopped processing crude and was converted into a storage facility. Soil tests are underway and engineering work has begun, but with timelines ranging from three to five years depending on the source, and financing structured around internal cash flow, bonds, and a planned IPO, this remains a long-term bet rather than an imminent market intervention.
Read the full article here >>>>>
Uber, Bolt fares could rise : the implications…
By Andrew Barden
Kenya's transport regulator is consulting stakeholders on whether to introduce minimum trip pricing or mandatory per-kilometre fare increases for ride-hailing apps such as Bolt and Uber, a directive that traces back to President Ruto's meeting with drivers at State House Mombasa and reflects genuine pressure on a sector being squeezed simultaneously by high fuel costs, congested roads, and thinning passenger budgets.
The case for higher fares sounds straightforward until you follow the logic one step further: a driver who welcomes the increase only benefits if enough passengers continue booking at the new price, and if demand falls instead, that same driver ends up waiting longer between trips, burning more fuel, and earning less than before. Tanzania ran this experiment earlier this year when it imposed government-dictated ride-hailing rates, and the outcome was that Uber left the market entirely. The regulator has not yet published a formal proposal, but the industry is already dividing along predictable lines, with drivers cautiously optimistic and passengers calculating whether a matatu has started to make more economic sense.
Read the full article here >>>>>
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Should Kenya regulate minimum fares for ride-hailing apps? |
By Harry Njuguna
Less than a month after completing a KSh272 billion acquisition that lifted its Safaricom stake to roughly 55%, Vodacom is asking shareholders to translate that ownership into something more concrete, a set of 14 special resolutions that would give Vodafone Kenya the right to nominate Safaricom's CEO, appoint five board directors, and control the outcome of any deadlocked board decision.
The CEO nomination right is the most consequential of the proposals: for as long as Vodafone Kenya holds more than 50% of Safaricom, the person running East Africa's most valuable company would come from a list of nominees provided by the new majority owner, a shift that moves the locus of executive power firmly outside Kenya.
The government's stake has shrunk to 20%, but its protections survive, with brand changes and expansion outside Kenya and Ethiopia still requiring government consent and a 75% board vote, a reminder that Safaricom has never been an ordinary listed company and is not about to become one. Safaricom's board has declined to recommend a position on the resolutions, leaving shareholders to decide by July 31 whether majority ownership should come with the kind of control Vodacom is now asking for.
Read the full article here >>>>>
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Yesterday’s Poll Results
Do you think the commitment to prevent the proposed sovereign wealth fund from being used to settle public debt will be respected in the long run?
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