Central Bank of Kenya

Kenyan Central Bank Says Lenders Face New Era of Smaller Profits

NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Kenyan lenders must adjust their business models to adapt to a new era of lower profits as interest-rate caps curb investor returns, Central Bank of Kenya Governor Patrick Njoroge said. Return on equity in the Kenyan banking industry declined to 13.6 percent in March from 18.2 percent in June, Njoroge told reporters Tuesday in the capital, Nairobi. For the country’s biggest lenders, the drop was more severe, slumping to 23 percent…

Kenya central bank keeps benchmark rate at 10 percent

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NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Kenya’s central bank kept its benchmark lending rate at 10.0 percent on Monday, the bank’s monetary policy committee said, a bid to reduce the threat of demand-driven inflation. Analysts polled by Reuters had predicted rates wouldn’t change. The government, which faces parliamentary, presidential and local elections in August, is struggling to contain high inflation, caused mostly by higher food prices. Kenya’s inflation rose to an annual 11.48 percent in…

Central Bank of Kenya to float 12-year infrastructure bond

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NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Kenya has floated treasury bond worth US$288 million to fund infrastructure projects coming two weeks after it cancelled a similar bid, Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has said. The 12-year infrastructure bond, which is up for sale for the next two weeks and will later be listed at the Nairobi Securities Exchange’s secondary market from February 28. “The Central Bank, acting as a fiscal agent for the Republic of…

Kenya May Hold Off Further Easing on Weak Shilling, Rate Cap

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NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Kenya’s interest-rate cap that has failed to stimulate private-sector lending and the nation’s falling currency may force the central bank to hit the brakes on its loosening monetary policy stance. The Central Bank of Kenya’s Monetary Policy Committee led by Governor Patrick Njoroge may adopt a “wait-and-see approach” at its meeting on Monday in order to further assess the effect of a law passed in August that limits how much banks can…

Kenya Economy Expands 6.2% in Second Quarter as Tourism Recovers

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NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Kenya’s economic grew more quickly in the three months through June as tourism rebounded and agriculture grew at a faster pace. Gross domestic product expanded 6.2 percent from a year earlier in the second quarter compared with 5.9 percent in the previous three months, the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement e-mailed from the capital, Nairobi. Growth was faster than the 5.9 percent recorded in the same period…

Kenyan Banks Seen Resisting Lower Loan Costs After Rate Cut

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NAIROBI, Kenya, Capital Markets in Africa: The Central Bank of Kenya’s reduction of the benchmark rate used by lenders to set borrowing costs may have caught commercial banks by surprise but they may find ways to dodge lowering lending rates. “Which bank would want to lend at a lower rate, taking more risk for lower returns?” Faith Atiti, a research analyst at Commercial Bank of Africa Ltd., said by phone from Nairobi. Banks will probably increase premiums and…

We Were Sleeping, Says Kenya Central Banker After Lenders Fail

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NAIROBI, Kenya, Capital Markets in Africa: Kenya’s central bank said that it should have stepped in sooner to halt the collapse of three lenders in the past nine months and that a culture of leniency by the regulator contributed to a build-up of misconduct in the industry. “The watchdog should have barked sooner and louder,” Njoroge told lawmakers in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital. “We have been asleep at the switches in terms of us failing to…

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