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Kenya Stacks Up Dollars, KRA Targets Crypto Billions
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Kenyan Wall Street
November 11, 2024
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Kenya’s Foreign Exchange Reserves Now at 3-Year High
Kenya’s forex reserves have grown by US$1.97 billion in the last ten weeks with the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) buying excess dollars amid increased supply of the greenback.
Last week, Kenya increased its reserves increase by a record US$737 million or 8.6% to bring the total to US$9.323 billion.
The jump comes just a week after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved the US$606 million disbursement under the US$3.6 billion medium-term programme with Kenya after months of delays.
The current reserves – the highest in 3 years – are enough to cover 4.8 months of imports, both falling above the 4 months statutory requirements and the EAC’s convergence requirement of 4.5 months of import cover.
“We have had a significant increase in foreign exchange, both from banks and diaspora remittances. In order to moderate the fluctuations and volatility in the exchange rate, we have indeed been buying forex and that is part of our role and business,” said Dr Thugge in a post MPC briefing in October.
Stay updated on this and other stories on The Kenyan Wall Street.
“ Inflation is when you pay fifteen dollars for the ten-dollar haircut you used to get for five dollars when you had hair.”
-Sam Ewing
KRA Eyes KShs. 60bn from Crypto Dealers
The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) announced during the Taxpayers’ Day Celebrations that it collected KSh 10 billion from crypto dealers in the financial year ended June,
The authority is planning to revamp its taxation framework for digital assets to capture KSh 60 billion in taxes from the Cryptocurrency sector this financial year.
In the Finance Act 2023, the government introduced a 3% tax on the transfer and exchange of digital assets like Cryptocurrency.
The taxman still has a long way to go in netting more than 700,000 crypto traders in Kenya what they consider as ‘a fair share’ due to loopholes in regulation and restrictions from the banking sector.
“We have agreed with our commissioner-general, I talked even to the Governor of Central Bank, the deputy governor so that we can have a joint technical committee to explore all the means to reach these Cryptocurrency dealers,” KRA chairman Anthony Mwaura said.
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