Why regulating ride-hailing fares might fail...

Good evening. It’s Brian from The Kenyan Wall Street.

As we head into the weekend, these are our top financial stories today…

Why Regulating Ride-Hailing Fares Might Fail…

By Brian Nzomo

As Kenya weighs new rules that could introduce minimum ride-hailing fares and tighter controls on platform pricing, Tanzania offers a timely case study in how well-intentioned regulation can produce unintended outcomes. Its reforms sought to protect drivers and passengers by capping commissions and limiting pricing flexibility, but they also weakened the economic incentives that ride-hailing platforms use to match drivers with demand, contributing to Uber's exit and Bolt's retreat from the mainstream market. 

The experience highlights a central question now confronting Kenyan policymakers: whether ride-hailing platforms should be regulated like traditional taxi operators or recognised as digital marketplaces that rely on dynamic pricing to function efficiently. As Parliament considers its own proposals, the debate is becoming less about whether the industry should be regulated than about which rules protect consumers without undermining the market they are meant to improve.

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Can Microfinance Banks afford the new proposed rules?

By Brian Nzomo

The hardest part of regulating finance is deciding when stronger rules make the system safer and when they simply make it smaller. Kenya's proposed Microfinance Bill has opened that debate by seeking to raise the minimum core capital for deposit-taking microfinance banks from KSh60 million to KSh250 million over five years, prompting lenders to warn that the change could squeeze smaller institutions out of the market even as they back much of the broader overhaul. The industry's pushback extends beyond capital, touching everything from governance requirements and lending limits to tax treatment, while the Central Bank has separately warned that the bill accidentally strips it of existing anti-money laundering enforcement powers unless Parliament restores them. The result is a rare legislative balancing act: a reform intended to modernise microfinance oversight is now being reshaped by arguments over competition, financial inclusion, and regulatory gaps before it becomes law.

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Africa's Biggest Equity Raise

By Harry Njuguna

Big industrial projects eventually reach a point where debt alone is no longer enough. The Dangote Refinery has reached that stage, securing a record US$2.5 billion equity investment from institutional investors as it looks to finance further expansion without adding to its borrowings, just weeks after refinancing US$4 billion of construction debt. The fundraising broadens the refinery's shareholder base for the first time and comes as the 650,000-barrel-per-day facility expands exports and deepens its push into refining and petrochemicals across Africa. Even without revealing its valuation or the size of the stake sold, the deal stands as Africa's largest publicly disclosed private equity placement and offers a glimpse of how the continent's biggest industrial ambitions are increasingly being financed. 

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