Kenya woos Turkey's leather sector

CS Adan: Kenya is instituting a raft of measures to kick start the leather revival proces by creating a conducive environment to attract investors

The Government is stepping up efforts to revive Kenya’s leather sector, estimated to contribute KES 5.5bn to the country’s GDP when fully exploited.

Industrialisation and Enterprise Development Cabinet Secretary Adan Mohamed is currently in Turkey, to woe industrialists and investors in the sector.

Mr. Mohamed is instituting a raft of measures to kick start the revival process, by creating a conducive environment to attract investors.

Last year, he formed a taskforce to spearhead recovery of the sector in Kenya and recently announced an ambitious plan to establish a Kshs. 17bn leather industrial park located on a 500 acre land in Kinanie, Athi River in Machakos County.

Through the park, Kenya hopes to turn from being exporter of raw materials and semi-processed hides and skins to finished leather goods.

The first phase of the project will establish 15 tanneries, each with a production capacity of 10 tonnes of raw hides and skins per day and upto 10,000 pairs per day each of shoes, hand bags, leather garments and industrial gloves.

“Kenya is offering a world class investment location with the proposed Leather Zone and we encourage global players based in Turkey to invest in Kenya,” he assured the President of Turkey Leather Industries Association, Mr. Erdal Matras.

The investor session was attended by a 30 member strong delegation of investors in tanning, footwear, garments and saddlery from Turkey.

Mr. Mohamed is accompanied on the Trip by the Export Processing Zones Authority officials, Members of Parliament as well as the Kenyan Ambassador to Turkey, Kiema Kilonzo.

Kenya’s leather sector has an annual demand of 28 million units, out of which local suppliers account for 4 million units with the balance of 24 million units coming from imports.

Old Mutual acquires majority stake in UAP Holdings

Old Mutual Holdings Limited has increased its stake in UAP Holdings Limited (UAP) to 60.66pc.
 

This follows a receipt of a notice of intention by Old Mutual Holdings Limited to increase its stake in UAP with a further acquisition of 37.33pc of the issued shares of the Company held by the private equity investors, The Abraaj Group, AfricInvest and Swedfund.

Reuters reports that the Anglo-South African financial services company will pay about $155.5 million in cash for the stake bought from the Abraaj Group, AfricInvest and Swedfund.

Old Mutual Holdings is the holding company for a group of asset management boutiques collectively known as Old Mutual Asset Management.

The company had earlier purchased 23.33pc shares previously held by Centum and industrialist Chris Kirubi.

In a statement to media houses, UAP said its strategy with Old Mutual will ensure the acceleration of UAP’s vision of being Africa’s revolutionary financial services group.

“The combined UAP and Old Mutual businesses in Kenya will be enhanced to include Insurance, Investment Management, Properties, Banking and Securities Brokerage thus creating a strong operating platform to continue growing the business. The growth of the UAP business in new markets including Tanzania, Rwanda and DRC will also be enhanced to include all products and services under the combined UAP-Old Mutual brand,” the statement read.

It is now expected that the complementarity of two strong brands will result in better value offering and strong future prospects for current and future clients by leveraging on the strengths of both organisations including: IT systems, distribution, wide range of products and services and strong leadership teams. 

“This is an exciting development for our business and for our clients. The combined strengths of Old Mutual and UAP will give our customers unrivalled access to a full suite of financial services. Our partnership with Old Mutual is aligned with our vision of creating a revolutionary African financial services company that delivers what customers want and where they need it,” said Joe Wanjui, Chairman of UAP.

UAP has grown from humble roots as a Kenyan General Insurance services provider in 1920, to a strong business franchise focusing on Insurance (general, life and medical insurance), Investment Management and Properties in 6 East and Central Africa countries – Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan, Rwanda, Tanzania and Democratic Republic of Congo.

Now on Twitter: Group direct messages and mobile video camera

Twitter has today rolled out Group direct messages and video camera that will give users various options of engaging on Twitter, giving them a new Twitter experience.

The group direct messaging lets you start conversations with any of your followers who do not all need to follow one another in order to chat.

One can create a group in just a few taps. When you are added to a group, you will get a notification. Group Direct messages will now enable public conversations to continue privately within a smaller group.

The ability to converse privately with groups will give its users more options for how and with whom they communicate on Twitter.

Capture, edit and share videos right from your Twitter app
Tweets have been more than 140 characters for some time. And starting today, everyone will soon be able to seamlessly capture, edit and share videos right from the Twitter app, too.

The Twitter camera is designed to be simple to use so as to capture and share life’s most interesting moments as they happen.

In just a few taps one can add a video to unfolding conversations, share perspectives of a live event, and show everyday moments instantly, without ever having to leave the app.

Viewing and playing videos will also be as simple: videos are previewed with a thumbnail and you can play them with just one tap. Twitter’s unique mobile video camera and inline editing experience lets you capture and share videos up to 30 seconds in an instant.

Twitter for iPhone users will be able to upload videos from the camera roll as well, a feature that will be available on our Android app soon.

These feature come soon after Twitter recently launched a “While you were away” feature on Twitter that enables users catch up on Tweets they might have missed even while they were away.