More Sugar Please

Hello and Happy New Year from The Kenyan Wall Street. 

In our first newsletter of the year, we take a look at the state's decision to liberalize the sugar market and highlight the top performing stock markets in 2025.

More Sugar Please…

By Harry Njuguna

Kenya’s decision to open its sugar market to COMESA closes a long chapter of protection and exposes a sector that has spent two decades learning to survive behind tariffs. Production has risen and acreage expanded, yet the arithmetic remains unforgiving: domestic supply still trails demand, binding the country to imports by necessity rather than ideology. The retreat of the safeguard places fresh pressure on mills and farmers to prove that leasing, governance reform, and payment discipline can succeed where insulation did not. Cane deliveries, erratic over time, continue to dictate both farmer incomes and retail prices. The liberalisation reads as a calculated risk, with policymakers wagering that exposure will force efficiency before volatility forces regret.

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African Stock Markets in 2025 : A Recap…

African equity markets in 2025 reflected the strange arithmetic of scarcity, inflation, and survival capital, where price movements often said more about fear than optimism. Malawi’s stock exchange drew continental attention, its extraordinary rise driven by a handful of dominant counters rather than a broad awakening of investor confidence. Across several smaller markets, banks and holding companies became shelters for domestic money seeking protection from weakening currencies. Thin trading amplified every bid, turning modest demand into dramatic index shifts. The year closed with African equities appearing buoyant on paper, while the economic ground beneath them remained uneven and unresolved.

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INSIGHT : Unpacking The Ipsos Ride Hailing Safety Perception Report for Kenya

By Moses Kemibaro

Kenya’s ride-hailing market has crossed a quiet psychological threshold, with safety now ranking alongside convenience as a defining feature of urban mobility. Ipsos data suggests that digital platforms have succeeded where traditional transport faltered, converting verification, tracking, and accountability into everyday expectations rather than premium extras. The findings carry a distinctly social dimension, particularly for women and night-time commuters, for whom these services function as protective infrastructure rather than mere logistics. What emerges is a portrait of a maturing market where trust has become a traded commodity.

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