ICE Africa Conference will provide regulators and operators with an ideal platform to discuss the growing market, Amne Suedi, Principal at Shikana Law Group, a law firm operating within East Africa and based in Tanzania and Kenya, explores the where, how and who of investing in the diverse gaming industry across Africa
Threadsol wants to raise the share of Kenya’s textile industry by providing better processes for manufacturers
Mowgli Mentoring has partnered with Safaricom to bring corporate mentoring into the organisation even as the telco looks to increase female representation within its management by 50 per cent in the next two years.
Despite growth in the pensions sector most Kenyans are not saving. This firm is changing that.
Africa Logistics Properties (ALP) on Thursday officially opened their modern grade A logistics and distribution warehousing complex at Tatu Industrial Park. The facility, which will offer a total floor space of 49,000sqm in three units, is the largest in Kenya to be built to international standards and available to the rental occupier market. According to Toby Selman the CEO of ALP the new facility is already 75 per cent pre-leased at a time when other segments of the commercial, retail and residential real estate market are struggling to achieve total occupancy of 75 per cent.
The demand for grade-A warehousing, which delivers significant cost savings and efficiency for users, currently far exceeds supply in the country, with warehouse users reporting that finding suitable facilities is frequently impossible, according to recent research by Tilisi Developments.
This shortage contrasts sharply with overbuild in some other real estate segments. The oversupply of commercial space in Nairobi reached 4.7m sqft in 2017, while retail space oversupply reached 3.7 m sq ft. Meanwhile, the supply of mall space rose by 41.6 per cent last year, even as demand stagnated. As a result, according to Knight Frank’s 2018 Kenya Market Update report, the occupancy rate for new retail centres is now running at between 60 and 75 per cent.
This shifting balance of supply and demand has also changed relative investment yields, with commercial and retail yields falling from 11 per cent three years ago to eight per cent by 2017, while residential property yields are now running at 5.6 per cent. This has moved warehousing yields to pole position within real estate, at 8.5 per cent.
“The proportion of pre-leasing has also been driven by the quality of the warehousing, which just does not exist elsewhere in Kenya and East Africa at the moment,” said Selman.
That scarcity has driven far higher pre-leasing by ALP in Nairobi than is normal elsewhere. In the US, the pre-lease rate recently rose to 43 per cent from a 17-year running average of 38 per cent, according to a recent report by CBRE, a global leader in real estate services.
“The near complete uptake of ALP North prior to launch speaks to the scale of the warehousing shortage in Kenya. But it also demonstrates that real estate requires developers to concentrate on the genuine areas of market need,” said Toby Selman, CEO of ALP.
However, ALP’s distribution hubs have brought international design practices that now sharply boost efficiency and productivity. For instance, the new warehousing offers pallet stacking 12 metres high, instead of the four metres offered by others in the market, as well as large column grids of 12m by 24m, which results in denser storage capacity and reduces the cost per pallet by up to 30 per cent.
The site also incorporates laser-levelled floors with anti-scratch coating that bear up to 10 tonnes. These allow the incorporation of automation systems, such as dock levellers, mechanized loading conveyors, and fork-lift-mechanized loading, cranes and loading platforms, which together improve turn-around time and cut labour by up to 76 per cent.
Traffic management flows also facilitate quicker turnaround times for trucks and deliveries, and the warehousing offers improved healthy and safety measures, firefighting systems with sprinklers, fibre optic telecommunications, and solar panels on rooftops for greater energy efficiency.
Located on the key peripheral routes connecting Kenya’s largest airport, JKIA, to the main transport corridors from Kenya to Uganda and Rwanda, “ALP’s strategic positioning further increases distribution and supply chain efficiencies,” said Selman.
Off-grid renewable energy has witnessed enormous growth over the last decade. Since 2008 capacity has increased and the number of people in rural communities served by the technology has witnessed double growth.
The high costs of grid electricity is what has prompted initiatives in the off grid sub-sector, promoting the growth of socio-economic activities among its residents beyond the grid.
Today, over 500,000 people in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania are receiving access to low-cost, secure renewable energy and benefit from the socio-economic impact access it delivers according to Energy Progress Report 2016 by the World Bank.
The report, tracking global achievements in sustainable energy, notes that off-grid solar-based systems have increased access to electricity in most rural areas in East Africa with Kenya leading with 60 per cent access, followed by Tanzania at 36 per cent and Uganda at 27 per cent.
As the industry is already gaining traction service providers like Mobisol, Azuri Technologies and M-KOPA are cropping and slowly exploiting the sector with their Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) lighting products.
The solar products uses a manageable financing mechanism which is made affordable to their customers, allowing them to pay using mobile money on a daily or weekly basis.
The solar firms are appealing to consumers with a pay-as-you-go model with daily payments of as low as Ksh49. A key factor also behind the growth of PAYG home electrification systems has been their business model, which is designed to respond to the needs of rural households and their ability to pay.
This significant uptake of PAYG has also been made possible by the decreasing prices of solar panel systems in Africa.
According to a new report from Global Off-Grid Lighting Association (GOGLA), ‘Powering Opportunity: The Economic Impact of Off-grid Solar’, nearly 60 per cent off-grid solar owners undertake more work and enterprise within just three months of using an off-grid solar home system.
The global association for the off-grid solar energy industry has revealed that households using small scale-solar power in East Africa are reporting a rise in economic activity, with an improvement in income and job opportunities.
The research, funded by The UK’s Department for International Development (DfID) and conducted by Altai Consulting, was based on data collected from over 2,300 small-scale Pay-as-you-go (PAYG) solar owners in Kenya, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda in the first quarter of 2018.
With more power for enterprise such as retail and entertainment, together with increased working hours, over a third of respondents reported an average income increase of US $35 a month, more than half the average monthly GDP per capita of the countries surveyed.
“Over 10 per cent have started a new business, and 7 per cent report getting a new job,” the report read in part.
The off-grid renewable energy solutions are being deployed to provide electricity services for a wide range of end-uses, including for powering agriculture, telecommunication infrastructure, healthcare centers, schools, and rural enterprises.
“Provision of power at home has also unlocked productivity, with 44 per cent of the respondents reporting they are using previously dark and unproductive hours to work,” the report said.
Furthermore, over 90 per cent of households replacing toxic kerosene lamps, used by millions in the developing world, claim both improved health and feeling safe.
GOGLA’s impact report comes as global leaders gather to discuss how to meet the world’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s).
With the focus on “Transformation towards sustainable and resilient societies”, the group is seeking insight on how to meet SDG’s including SD7 ‘Ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all by 2030’.
“This report shows that the net economic and social benefits off-grid solar are a huge opportunity for national governments of the developing world. Governments tell us they are interested in jobs and economic impact.” Koen Peters, Executive Director of GOGLA
He added that the report shows, off-grid solar is directly delivering such impacts and significantly. “We call on policy makers, treasury and energy departments to work together with off-grid companies, banks and institutions to break down barriers to off-grid solar and build a pathway to accelerate energy access,” He said.
Currently, 1 billion people across Africa and Asia, about one in seven people on earth, have no access to electricity.
With falling prices, increased efficiency and financial innovation, such as pay-as-you-go consumer finance, over 120 million people have now shifted from toxic kerosene lamps, candles and diesel generators to clean off-grid solar electricity since 2010.
Off-grid solar power has also meant access to previously unobtainable products and services, such as televisions and phone charging opening up opportunities for work and leisure. The vast majority (94 per cent) report an improvement in quality of life with solar.
The lighting Association hopes that Off-grid solutions will be at the heart of delivering universal electricity access by bundling off-grid renewables with efficient appliances and lighting, giving households better quality energy services at a substantially lower cost, making off-grid access more affordable and reliable.
Two eastern African countries Ethiopian and Eritrea reconciled in July and the move could see the two countries record economic gains.
Sending a job application and getting no response from the employer can be devastating. In fact, it is even more demoralizing than the application being rejected.But, imagine getting a job offer, and the employer waits for you to turn up for your first day but you don’t?
The last few months have seen a lot of activity in the African aviation sector. A number of countries in the continent have been persistent with the setting up or managing national carriers.
Since his swearing in as the Prime Minister of Ethiopia in April, Ahmed Abiy has shown the world that he is nothing like his predecessors.