Exclusive: Kenya to focus on mobile money, single digital economy

Kenya, which is home to almost 25 million people below the age of 19, is aiming to use the latest technology to enhance the country's mobile money network, where people access banking services by phone.

In addition, and in collaboration with the UAE, Kenya hopes to expand its services across the whole of Africa.

"We are working with the UAE Government to find out ways to establish the right machinery in Kenya that will enable us to offer logistic services across the region using technology. A lot of things are going on with the UAE," Joe Mucheru, Kenya's Minister of Information and Communications Technology (ICT), told The National..

“As a country, we are only 50 million but as Africa we are 1.3 billion. Our heads of trade have already signed continental free trade area agreements. In Kenya, our aim is clear ... to go beyond geographical boundaries.

Regarding the development of Kenya's in-country mobile services, Mr Mucheru, speaking in Dubai where he is attending International Telecommunication Union’s conference, said: “We are a young country ... up to half [of the population] are below 19 years. And all these young people are on mobile where most of the technology is residing these days.

“Our aim is to capitalise on this culture and expand the web of mobile money further,” he said, adding, “Currently, over 75 per cent of Kenya’s adult population is using mobile money and this number is much more than the individuals using physical banking services.”

Mobile money technology, which is also referred to as mobile wallet, allows people to receive, store and spend money via a mobile phone.

“In fact, we are transacting the whole GDP of the country through mobile money … It’s around $70 billion annually, so you can imagine the volume of money involved,” said Mr Mucheru.

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The Kenyan ICT ministry is also executing a project to cover the entire population under a national health scheme where a single health card will allow people to use services anywhere in the country. Authorities are collecting biometric data of residents and subsequently health cards carrying that information will be issued. Citizens can access any medical facility across Kenya, using these health cards.

“To start with, we have begun a country-wide roll out of [digital] services and gradually it will be expanded across the region. We are working towards creating single digital market in Africa. There should be a single ID allowing individuals and business to access services [digitally] in entire Africa,” said Mr Mucheru.

“Technology can unify all African nations and we are keeping all politics and any other regional issues out of it.”

Twenty one of the 25 least-connected countries in the world are in Africa and only 22 per cent of the continent's population has access to the internet, according to the World Bank Group, which launched the Digital Economy for Africa (DE4A) initiative in April this year to bring together African finance and ICT ministers, central bank governors, global tech and telecom giants.

Currently, nearly 78 per cent of Kenya’s population is covered under a 3G network and the ICT ministry is planning to cover the entire nation under 4G by next year.

“We are working in partnership with private players like Google and Alphabet to have 100 per cent deployment of 4G network using balloons by the first quarter of 2019. I think Kenya will be the first country to have commercial deployment of balloons for 4G connectivity,” said Mr Mucheru.

To cover remote areas, high-altitude balloons are placed at a height of about 18km and used to create an aerial wireless network.

Harnessing technology, Kenya’s ICT ministry is offering almost 100 government services through its online platform e-citizen service. It considers financial services, technology and business services, agriculture and health as the top four game-changers in Kenya's economic future.

“Right now we are exploring how we can use blockchain and artificial intelligence to offer more citizen-centric services. ICT is just an enabler and we are investing heavily in different sectors,” said Mr Mucheru.

In the past few months, the ICT ministry has invested $700 million to build world-class technology set-up and $170m in developing data centre infrastructure.

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Skewed figures

In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.

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Profile of Foodics

Founders: Ahmad AlZaini and Mosab AlOthmani

Based: Riyadh

Sector: Software

Employees: 150

Amount raised: $8m through seed and Series A - Series B raise ongoing

Funders: Raed Advanced Investment Co, Al-Riyadh Al Walid Investment Co, 500 Falcons, SWM Investment, AlShoaibah SPV, Faith Capital, Technology Investments Co, Savour Holding, Future Resources, Derayah Custody Co.

PFA Premier League team of 2018-19

Allison (Liverpool)

Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool)

Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool)

Aymeric Laporte (Manchester City)

Andrew Robertson (Liverpool)

Paul Pogba (Manchester United)

Fernandinho (Manchester City)

Bernardo Silva (Manchester City)

Raheem Sterling (Manchester City)

Sergio Aguero (Manchester City)

Sadio Mane (Liverpool)

Landfill in numbers

• Landfill gas is composed of 50 per cent methane

• Methane is 28 times more harmful than Co2 in terms of global warming

• 11 million total tonnes of waste are being generated annually in Abu Dhabi

• 18,000 tonnes per year of hazardous and medical waste is produced in Abu Dhabi emirate per year

• 20,000 litres of cooking oil produced in Abu Dhabi’s cafeterias and restaurants every day is thrown away

• 50 per cent of Abu Dhabi’s waste is from construction and demolition

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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

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