Regulation of Bodabodas in Kenya
14 March 2022
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FOREIGN EXCHANGE RATE
New Regulations for BodaBoda riders in Kenya
On Tuesday, President Uhuru Kenyatta ordered a crackdown on all bodaboda operators in the country.
This is because a few days earlier, a female motorist was sexually assaulted by a group of bodaboda operators on Wangari Mathai road (forest road) in Nairobi.
32 bodaboda riders have since been arrested as suspects.16 of them have been arraigned at the Milimani law courts.
Following the incident, several regulations have been introduced to tame the Bodaboda sector:
a. The Government gave bodaboda operators an ultimatum of 60 days, from the 21st of this month, to join registered Saccos.
b. Each member of the Sacco’s must be issued with a certificate of the Sacco they belong to.
c. The Saccos will be required to maintain a digital register of all the members.
d. The bodaboda operators are also required to obtain a smart riders license.
A study by Car & General revealed that there are about 1.2 million riders in Kenya with 9 out of 10 motorcycles being used for commercial purposes. The average daily earnings of a bodaboda rider are Ksh 1000, which translates to a total daily income of Ksh 1 billion from the bodaboda sector. On saturday, The National police service announced the end of the Bodaboda Crackdown to give room for the government to re-organise the sector.
Kenya lifts its mask Mandate
Last week, Kenya’s Health Cabinet secretary announced that the requirement to wear face masks in open public places had been lifted.
Below is a breakdown of his announcement
Full in-person worship services for vaccinated persons has been restored.
The PCR test requirement has been lifted for vaccinated travelers. Travelers at the point of entry will still be required to fill in the full locater forms.
Unvaccinated travelers will be subjected to the antigen test at their own cost.
Vaccinated Truck drivers will no longer require the PCR certificate when traveling across Kenya.
The Health Cabinet Secretary maintained that these new measures could be reviewed based on prevaling covid-19 situation globally.
MARKETS
1. Central Bank of Kenya lifts the freeze on bank lending rates
The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) began approving applications made by Banks for the increase in costs of loans based on customer risks.
Equity Bank was first to publicly announce that the CBK had approved the risk element in their lending formula.
Equity has priced its lending rate between 13% and 18.5% depending on the risk of the client.
Small businesses will get loans from Equity bank at a 14% -16% rate.
Unsecured loans from Equity bank are to attract an 18% rate.
2. Equity Group lobbied the Central Bank of Kenya to reinstate Bank-mobile wallet transaction fees
Last week, Equity Group asked the Central Bank of Kenya(CBK) to reinstate charges on transfers of money from bank accounts to mobile money wallets.
Backstory: Banks and the CBK have been holding closed-door meetings over the resumption of these transaction charges but the CBK still insists that the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are yet to slow down.
NEWS
Moderna plans to build an mRNA manufacturing facility in Kenya
Moderna Inc announced that it would set up a manufacturing facility in Kenya, its first in Africa, to produce messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines, including COVID-19 shots.
Moderna expects to invest approximately $500 million in the Kenyan facility and supply as many as 500 million doses of mRNA vaccines to the continent each year.
We're announcing that with the assistance of the U.S. Government, we have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the Government of the Republic of Kenya to establish Kenya as the location for the our mRNA manufacturing facility. - Moderna
CORPORATE
Facebook content moderators in Kenya to get more pay for their services
Sama, a company responsible for Facebook’s sub-Saharan Africa content moderation announced that Facebook content moderators in Kenya will receive a 30-50% pay rise.
The announcement follows a report by TIME which revealed that content moderators in Nairobi were subject to poor pay and working conditions by Sama
As per Sama’s announcement, Every content moderator will receive an extra 20,000 Kenyan shillings ($176) per month.
The raise means that the lowest-paid Facebook content moderators at Sama will now take home around 50,000 Kenyan shillings ($439) each month after-tax, or around $2.20 per hour for a 9-hour working day.
According to TIME, the pay rise still puts Sama employees among Facebook’s lowest-paid workers in the world. This is because, by comparison, outsourced content moderators for Facebook in the U.S. are paid a starting salary of $18 per hour.
START-UPS
Kenyan electric vehicle startup BasiGo launched its first electric passenger bus in Nairobi
BasiGo introduced a Ksh 5 million passenger electric bus in anticipation of increased demand for environmentally friendly transport.
The 25 seater bus is designed by BYD automotive and has a 250-kilometer range with a recharging period of fewer than four hours.
BasiGo will run the pilot program with public service vehicle (PSV) operators Citi Hoppa and East Shuttle. Citi Hoppa will deploy the buses between the city center and Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.
Mpesa hit 30 million monthly users in Kenya
Safaricom announced that its mobile money transfer platform, M-Pesa, surpassed 30 million users in Kenya.
Mpesa was launched 15 years ago on 6th March 2007. Currently, it has 51 million active users across Kenya, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Lesotho, Ghana, and Egypt.
The previous two years have seen M-PESA record explosive growth in business usage with the number of businesses accepting payments on its Lipa Na M-PESA service doubling from 173,000 in April 2020 to more than 387,000 currently.
WHAT YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED THIS WEEK
Food prices are expected to go up
Kenyans will have to endure higher food prices because KRA (Kenya Revenue Authority) and Nairobi County Government have introduced a levy on cereals delivered to millers around the city.
“Please take note that KRA and the Nairobi County government shall with effect from Wednesday, March 1, 2022 at 7am in the morning, commence collection of cess on cereals from produce being brought into your members’ premises,” - KRA deputy commissioner.
Counties have been given 60 days to raise pay for nursery school teachers
The Senate issued a directive to the counties giving them a 60-day ultimatum to ensure all nursery school teachers receive increased pay. The directive targeted 42,700 teachers employed by different counties.
Kenya Airways announced a new route network: Daily flights to London
Kenya Airways announced that it would increase the frequency of flights for the London route from 5 times weekly to daily flights.
Flights to Kisumu have been reduced from 26 to 17 flights weekly.
The direct flights to Milan and Rome have been postponed due to low passenger demand.
MTN Group became the first African company to buy land in the metaverse
MTN Group announced that it had purchased 144 plots of digital land in Africarare, the first virtual reality metaverse in Africa. The company did not disclose how much exactly it spent on this.
It stated that its presence on the metaverse demonstrates its commitment to supporting African innovation.
Kenya and Zimbabwe sign 7 bilateral agreements
Kenya and Zimbabwe signed seven bilateral agreements seeking to boost investments between the two countries.
The agreements are on: a) political and diplomatic consultations, b) tourism and wildlife conservation, c) civil aircraft accidents, d) serious incidents investigations, e) women empowerment and community development, f) youth affairs, g) cooperatives and sports and recreation activities.