Eddy Njoroge: Oink, Oink, Oink
Has anyone noticed just how much money and power this fellow Njoroge is accumulating lately?
This guy’s name is appearing every. freaking.where.
When I first saw all the responsibilities that this new oinker has on his plate, I wondered how anyone would have the time to do all these high-level jobs, but I quickly hit myself and came back to reality. Alas! The goal here is not to work and make a difference. How silly can I be? (spank me, Eddy). Ouch.
You see, if your goal is just to guard the chicken house (by making sure the foxes don’t get in) heck, you could have fifteen different titles and you still wouldn’t be overworked.
Since the actual work is not being done by you (it’s being done by your fellow mother hens) — All of you have to do is keep everyone away from mummy and the chickens will literally come home to roost.
Every regime in Kenya has produced it’s own set of “oinkers” , but I think that these new set of oinkers have convinced themselves that their oinking is not going to destroy the economy in the same way that Moi’s oinkers destroyed the economy, but is this assumption correct?
Can an economy be built on a system of money shifting and real estate? So, say I’m an Oinker. This is essentially what I would do:
So, where is the production here? There is none. I’m just shifting my stolen assets from gear 1, to gear 2, to gear 3, to gear 4, etc, etc…
I’m not building a factory that may produce items for export (like clothes, cars or microchips)..
I’m not creating a venture capital fund that might help future entrepreneurs who may in fact produce something (like mobile phone technology or a software company like facebook or microsoft or wipro)…
This is why the unemployment numbers are not changing. A shifta economy cannot produce jobs. Actually, it can’t produce anything.
This is also the reason why Africa remains the poorest continent in the world today. We have become shifta’s not producers. We’re like Somali shifta bandits, except instead of AK-47’s, we’re using pens.
People are so hung up on trying to predict whether Equity’s shares are going to go up or down that they are missing this shifta economy, which is where the real moral crime is taking place.
As people are starving, more and more money is slowly being shifted away.
Additional commentary on this topic:
Daniel Waweru over at KenyaImagine has an excellent review of John Githongo’s book and you should definitely read it. The comments that follow the review are also very good.
1. You need to do real homework and find out what Transcentury does. You’ll be surprised there’s lots of production going on.Factories, I mean. The export-oriented ones you like to talk about.Quote me.
2. When you shift money into the NSE, I believe that you are essentially helping these publicly traded companies be more productive, and reward you when their stock prices appreciate. Ever heard of equity (as opposed to debt) financing? Maybe, just maybe, that’s why some local, shady, building society is able to scale up to be a bank, a regional one at that.Yes I’m talking Equity Bank.
3. Pray, re-define production for me. That’s if putting up apartments for rent doesn’t count.Assuming that no cement is bought from Blue Triangle, no sand from Ukambani, ballast from wherever, bricks from Embu–whatever apartments are made of–, no architect from Nairobi is consulted, no strong young man is hired to do the actual building, and no one actually pays to live in the house. If said house is not a good, I’m inclined to think that housing is a service that you have actually produced. If anything, I’m all for moving into the services sector.
4. When, oh, when, shall Kenyan/Ugandan individuals be free to honestly do or own whatever they want without someone else thinking/blogging that they shouldn’t? Or don’t deserve to? Or are corrupt? Do tell!
@PKW, I like your points.
But KE has to have an opinion about everything including what does not really understand to a good level
KE
You are wrong on this one.
I personally know and have dealt with Eddy Njoroge. He is one of the brightest minds or brains or whatever you want to call it in Kenya today.
This guy has a brain the size of a small planet and I am sure he can handle all those responsibilities effortlessly.
By the way, the PNU team has several such “underground” figures. They don’t payuka but they are capable of countering the best of ODM moves on any level.
KE
By the way, you should try and talk to Eddy Njoroge about your concerns – he is a very down to earth and approachable character. Like I said, I have consulted with him on several occasions.
He is also a firm believer in nurturing and mentoring young Kenyan talent, in the diaspora and also in Kenya. I know some people he has supported, nurtured and mentored and they are doing very well in the diaspora and in Kenya.
I have to warn you though, to have your facts right before you talk to him because he will grill you on the veracity of whatever you are saying. In other words, you will have a spirited and honest discussion.
Make an effort. Talk to him and I promise you you will revise this post.
And you are here reading my opinions and commenting on them. If I didn’t have an opinion, this blog would not exist!
I’ve said on numerous occasions that if you are not interested in information or opinions, then don’t read blogs.
Kenyans have a very strange way of approaching blogs. It’s almost like you’ve insulted their mother if you say something they disagree with. I don’t quite understand it.
Blogs are not tools of indoctrination. My goal here is not to force you to believe what I believe. I’ assume everyone has a mind of their own and they will come to their own conclusions about various issues.
You’ve just given me a topic for a future blog piece: How a lack of a democratic culture breeds a population of people who are unable to engage in healthy discussions with people who may have contrarian viewspoints.
I also think people are used to this blog being a pro-kibaki blog and it was (earlier) during the year and during the campaign, but at some point, you can’t keep defending the indefensible. Kibaki is messing up.
PKW:
Do you honestly believe that Transcentury is “succeeding” based purely on the sheer genius of it’s members? (whomever they maybe?).
Do you also think that it’s just a coincidence that Transcentury has emerged during Kibaki’s tenure? or that Kenoil, a company owned by Biwott, emerged during Moi’s tenure?
If the country is filled with such “genius” businessmen, why is it still so poor? And I’m basing this on what I have seen happen in other countries where real production has actually resulted in a reduction of those living in absolute poverty.
I’m not seeing that in Kenya and that doesn’t mean that nothing exists. Like I said, they are shifting their money around because you can’t leave all of it in a bank account, but why aren’t the real poverty numbers going down, if these guys are such high-level producers?
KE
Evaluation of the post if I may
Drama = 9 out of 10
Venting = 8 out of 10
Information = 3 out of 10
Analysis of situation = 0 out of 10
I have been reading some of your earlier work. Am I right that something seems to have @!&% you off lately?
Still, I can’t see how having Mr EN as Chairman of the NSE is supposed to be a change from the past.
Thanks for the link to DW review of the book. I read the book but the commentary sort of feels like re-reading shakespeare under the guidance of an English Lit teacher. Good stuff!
This is something I discovered a long time ago. Infact, I have gone on to discover that I have to stoop to a certain level inorder to communicate with imbecilic parasites in their own language. I find it disgusting but they will only understand their own language.
This is when we say in Kiambu – Ciorire ni Ciorire. In other words – Bring it on! Whatever!
KE, I like very much your new digs!!!! Very nice.
But I digress…..be careful about throwing the baby out with the bath water or going on a populist binge!!!!!
A lot of your assumptions are unfounded and inaccurate. Many companies like Transcentury are very legitimate, or as your personal mantra claims, made their money through blood, sweat and tears. I think you’re taking two extremes heres i.e. there is a dearth of Kenyan entrepreneurs creating real wealth (production through creation and innovation) and all those corporate/industry types who are supposed captains of industry in the public eye made their money through graft, theft and crony capitalism. There is no middle group in your estimation and that is where you are dead wrong.
There are a handful of entrepreneurs who made their wealth honestly and quietely in the 90s and 00s and who do not owe fealty to either the Kenyatta cabal or Moi cabal. Granted many come from a particular ethnic group whose political sympathies and kinship ensure that they associate with some elements of the Kiambu Mafia and certainly the new/old Kibaki regime but to paint a broad brush and say because they associate with so and so, and because they are golf buddies with so and so, then their shadowy companies and businesses are founded on graft is misguided.
Do your research on these companies independent of some of the personalities involved who serve as figureheads then you can make informed judgements.
P.S. Just so you know, Transcentury did not emerge during the Kibaki era. Transcentury was formed in 1996 by a very ordinary and nondescript group of business types as an investments club. It just so happened that the members had a bit more pocket change than the average merry go round but certainly they were not some mega rich politically connected shadowy figures. I say this with confidence because I KNOW the members who formed it.
The portfolio of their early and current investments can be sourced from their website.
Certainly many of the members are political sympathizers of the Kibaki regime and definitely you cannot discount a certain degree of favoritism. But to claim that their success rests wholly on this favoritism is false. Furthermore, this company amongst others operate above board to the extent that they have attracted significant equity investment from very run of the mill, mainstream foreign investors. That does not prove that they are NOT dishonest but it does prove that there is sufficient transparency to warrant close scrutiny from the international investor class.
Sijui:
I’m glad you like the new look. I’m always working hard to ensure that my readers have an easy “reading” experience (short of my commentary of course!).
Anyway, let me take what you said since you know the people behind this company.
I’m assuming Transcentury is a private equity fund/company/.
Now, private equity companies, raise money either from wealthy individuals or from institutions like pension funds or whatever.
They then take this money and re-invest it in other companies by actually buying a piece of those companies and work on turning those companies around so that they can make a return on their investment and hopefully a profit.
So, my question is (& I looked at their website, which is a very good site) – my question is, where did the initial capital for this company come from? because with private equity funds, you need millions of dollars to make these investments. Where did the initial capital come from?
And this brings me to my central point, which is, if the initial source of the cash is not “clean”, all you have to do, in order to avoid losing the money, is go out and hire professional managers who won’t screw things up, which is what they appear to have done.
However, how is this shifting of money helping the larger economy? It’s finance. It’s not production. Yes, they are investing in actual companies, but it’s still just shifting. It’s like the Blackstone group with that guy Schwarzmann.
And isn’t this why the poverty numbers are not going down? We have too many Schwarzmann’s whose sources of capital are hard to verify and not enough bill gates. These finance guys are focused on making sure they don’t lose the money. It’s just management. It’s not creativity. There’s too much finance and not enough science.
**Additional Questions:
Why are the poverty numbers in Kenya not going down? Why isn’t the unemployment number not shifting?
What do you think is happening?
KE
I think that you cannot blame Transcentury and other so called finance types for the poverty numbers in Kenya. This is more a question for government policy.
We need revolutionary policies in the areas that we are good in such as agriculture. Kenya has great potential to uplift millions from poverty through agriculture. Why can’t we add value to our agricultural products?
I also think that Kenya and Africa in general should integrate more.
All good and valid questions that inquiry minds want to know. So let me try to tackle them through some supposition since I was not obviously at the table when the deal went down:
1) most pooled their resources from savings, home equity, land holdings etc. I believe in the beginning i.e. 1996, each member brought $16,000 to $ 20,000 to the table. Chump change and very achievable for the modest middle/upper middle class Kenyan at the time. So in aggregate the 8-10 of them raised roughly $ 100,000
2) They started very small in the beginning and did the typical laymans retail investing i.e. bought small time stocks in Kenya on the NSE and other investments and then consolidated gains/losses slowly.
3) Many of them further invested or started other businesses like James Gachui with then Wananchi Online, profits were consolidated and added to their Transcentury pool.
4) Transcentury transformed from a kitchen table investment fund amongst friends based on growth and profitability of individual investors/shareholders of the club.
Of course many other things happened in between including a buddy of theirs ascending to Statehouse etc but in a nutshell that is what happened an initial $ 16,000 investment grows to multi-millions.
You are right about the correlation with poverty decline, and the only thing I can add is we need 1000s of Transcentury type investors not just a dozen or so that are there i.e. individuals like James Gachui who create wealth from scratch in the form of companies (Wananchi, Seven Seas Technologies) that add VALUE TO THE ECONOMY. Which goes back to your original argument, too much crony capitalism and rewarding of it, too few entrepreneurs worth any salt.
We absolutely do not need more guys like the one’s at transcentury. I hate to say this, but they are essentially money launderer’s. They can’t leave all that money sitting in a bank account and so Transcentury is formed and it becomes the conduit through which the money gets shifted around the world. You’ve got to clean up the dirty money and this is how you do it.
This is the problem: Every time I start looking at one of these companies in Kenya because I’d like to talk about them on this blog, I start seeing all these links to statehouse and then, why even bother talking about them? There’s nothing to be learned by looking at them because their growth is not being propelled by genius, brilliance or creativity. Without that link to statehouse, they would have remained a $100,000 dollar company.
Now I have to go back to talking about the Indian entrepreneurs. At least they have a story that may teach us something.
Short paragraph about Transcentury from Africa Confidential:
“Trans-Century Limited has grown over the past five years to become the biggest private equity firm in East Africa, with a multimillion dollar portfolio. It has interests in cabling, information technology, power, rail transport, haulage and banking.
Managing Director Tony Wainana (who is no longer there) began the rapid expansion in 2003 with the 240 million Kenya shilling acquisition of East African Cables in a deal with the ubiquitous Naushad Merali.
It’s not a coincidence that the “rapid” expansion began in 2003, one year after Kibaki came into office”.
I want to believe, but the evidence just keeps smacking me in the face.
Next Company up for discussion: AccessKenya. I want to believe, but, but, but….
Believing is not enough. I don’t believe-I know that Transcentury is doing great work.I’d love to see another post based on research, and a lot less belief.
Or assumptions. Get your facts straight!
Yes, I think it’s a coincidence that Transcentury emerged during the Kibaki era. I’m not an insider on either Kibaki or Moi administrations, but combined, they make a solid 30 years. In 3 decades, businesses are bound to emerge-and fail. If I start my own business today, do your homework (don’t need to think, assume or believe anything)and you’ll find out that it’ll be by pure coincidence that it has emerged during Kibaki’s era.
One reason poverty is not going down is that people are having babies like there is no tomorrow;population increase, in short. If the number of people keep increasing, and the resources keep decreasing, the number of people living in poverty only increases.Example; the poulation of Uganda has doubled in the last 23 years, but the amount of land has not doubled, neither has GDP, the number of schools and hospitals, and a myriad other resources. Secondly, the cost of doing business (it’s business that reduces poverty) is too high, hence it dissuades people from investing in Kenya. Have you looked at our infrastructure, or the cost of energy that’s needed to run a business in Kenya. True that labour is cheap, but these other factors make it among the least favourable places people want to set up shop. Add to the mix corruption, in my opinion, the mother of all poverty. One word; bad policies.
In your post, you didn’t mention putting it in local bank accounts, but in the NSE, in apartment buildings (in which case, this is productive:refer to point 2 and 3 on my earlier comment) and foreign bank accounts. In fact, I’m of the opinion that putting it in local bank accounts is productive because they can turn around and lend it to small businesses that will make it grow in their own small ways and ensure that it keeps circulating. The trickle down effect. In fact this combines trickling down (from banks to mama mbogas to duka-owners) and bumbling up (from mama mbogas to Safaricom through air-time, M-Pesa etc).
Thanks!
KE,
let me answer you on poverty. From my observation and research, I have concluded the biggest cause of poverty in Kenya and Africa is the “poverty or scarcity mentality”. This is a mentality that informs you that there are limited resources and for you to be able to get this resources someone else has loose or some big fella somewhere has to intervene for you to have your share of the cake. This mentality is what stops people from seeing the opportunities that lies in their environment and exploiting them for their benefits.
That is why you see foreigners coming here with nothing and succeeding a lot because opportunities are many.
But in any society and country there will always be poor people. That is where the government comes in and provides basic social services like cheap decent housing, clean environments with roads, sewer lines and security, affordable health care and free education. In this way, the poor are catered for and don’t have to endure indignity for life. I believe this is where PKW is saying for Kenya it will be difficult for GOK to provide for these things if the population keeps growing faster than the real GDP. Its also noted its in poorer societies in kenya that have bigger households. Its not rare to find a poor man in Kilifi with 2 wives and 8 children yet he earns so little. So of every poor person had more than 7 kids, it puts pressure on government to educate all this poor kids upto secondary level.
Mind you even if you lived in decent shelter with clean piped water and electricity provided by the government but earn less than a dollar a day, you would still be considered poor but its your own effort that will pull you out the ‘projects’ to higher economic levels. If you consider the states, you see this same kind of mentality in the black community. You have Asians and Latinos doing better than them because atleast they are industrious and have sence of setting up enterprises to uplift their ecomomic and social statuses.
I couln’t agree more. The debate around poverty has been characterised by the poverty of ideas. All our problems are opportunities in disguise. Think even basic things like food and shelter. Look at Safcom,or Safcon, if you prefer. You’d have been forgiven to believe that the Kenyan (and African, by extension) population could not afford cell-phone use. That is, if you based your argument on historical data-like how many people had access to landlines. But these guys saw an opportunity, tweaked it to fit the local market, and went for it big-time. Equity bank has been able to bank on people who the big guys simply turned away because they could not afford the minimum opening balance, fees, and had no references in the ‘big’ banks.
But the problem with KE’s and other like-minded kind of mentality (on this post, at least) is that when someones goes out and capitalises on such opportunities, then it is assumed, believed and thought that these capitalists and opportunists could only be politically-connected thieves. Reason being that it has not been done elsewhere/in other societies where there has been real production.Give me a break already.
I agree with PKW 100% on this, perhaps there have been some shadows and mirrors at Transcentury, but to me that is irrelevant, what is relevant is sitting down with a James Gachui, Eddy Njoroge and Peter Karago and picking their brains on the transformation of Wanachi Online to a multi-media giant Wananchi Telecom…..I don’t need to believe, I saw how Wananchi transformed the ISP landscape in Kenya and I remember when these guys were laughed out of the room during the waning days of the Moi regime when they said they would create an ISP with a target market of the mwananchi not blue chip companies and corporate Kenya.
Hey, I’d like to hear their thoughts on just how they see their diffusion of equity investment in SMEs in Kenya, are they really going to be accessible to guys like me? What is their evaluation of the risk threshold for their investments in SMEs……I see they have an open mind on micro-enterprises, with their experience with East Africa Cables and other heavy duty industrial suppliers what role do they think they can play in supporting low tech/low skill producers i.e. the Jua Kali sector scale up in to light manufacturing?
So perhaps you are limiting your assessment of these individuals to their connection with Transcentury and Statehouse, that is fair but as you can see many of your assumptions are based on inaccuracies. Transcentury can’t be a money launderer if a lot of its capital comes from thriving, legitimate businesses that were grown from scratch in front of everyone’s eyes and private equity investment from external sources. Neither can you say a company like Wananchi Telecom thrived solely because of its connection to Statehouse when the facts are in fact its competitive edge in a very crowded,open and cutthroat ICT industry, so the last strawman is that $$$ were funneled through them from shady deals/cronyism. Seems to me that if true that accounts for probably not more than 30% of their capital.
In all to circle back to your original point, definitely its great to emulate and learn from the Indian and other BRIC entrepreneurs who’ve made it through sheer wit, hard work and perseverance but let’s not pretend there are no homegrown examples in Kenya. And frankly, as an entrepreneur operating in the African market, I’m much more interested in what a James Gachui can tell me than an Anil Ambani.
PKW:
china and India, two of the world’s most populous countries were still able to reduce their levels of poverty. So, why can’t Kenya, with it’s exploding population do the same?
My contention has been that the growth in China and India was created through real production in industries like manufacturing, high-tech and other things. Whereas in Kenya, crony capitalism continues to create a small group of wealthy individuals whose fortunes are inextricably linked to the regime du jour.
sijui:
Are you serious? Have you looked at their website? This is a conduit for transferring wealth nothing more. There is no genius there. A lot of their capital was not acquired by investing in thriving businesses and this is the heart of the issue.
And they’re not going to give someone like you money. You are a real entrepreneur. They are simply “money movers”. You’ll have to build up your company first, put in all the sweat and maybe then, when you need to expand, they’ll come in with some money for you. If your smart, you won’t let them run your company, otherwise they’ll end up destroying it.
Check out their new CEO and tell me what you think.
Very interesting info on transcentury at mashada.
Link below:
http://www.mashada.com/forums/.....aking.html
These people are going to mint money like there is no tomorrow and they will do it through the IPO process. Most if not all of the parastatasls that have been listed or that are going to be listed, will end up being bought by them.
That’s why Eddy Njoroge is the new chairman of the NSE.
I predict that the two firms that are going to help them eat (for a cut) will either be Dyer & Blair (through Mbaru) or SIB (through Wangunyu)
Annon,
You are right about transcentury.
Transcentury’ was founded in 1997 as an investment and acquisition company by a group of 29 central Kenya businessmen who were already well established in business.
Among the 29 is Kanyago a business ally of President Mwai Kibaki, who is also the chairman of Express Kenya limited, Othaya Development Association and CDP. Kanyango as well chairs the board of East African Cables, makers of telephone and power cables.
It is clear that the firm went silent for almost seven years only to resurface after Kibaki took power. In 2004, it made headlines when it suddenly acquired a 4 percent stake in Kenya Power and Lightning Company (KPLC).
The stake valued at Ksh 332 million amounted to some 2,000,000 million shares previously owned by the NSSF, a move that saw the government lose control of KPLC.
This acquisition left no doubt that TCL was a politically connected firm owned by basically elderly friends of the head of state despite protestations to the contrary by directors.
Interesting part of the KPLC shares was that a few months later, in 2005, transcentury sold back to the government those same shares at a much higher price of Sh 630 million.
I cant believe you guys dont mention the pot bellied politician thieves who have ruined this country. They are number one reason kenyans live in poverty.
Faisal:
That’s exactly why I’ve brought up transcentury. It’s a conduit for a lot of the money that is being stolen by the politicians.
This “deal culture” is very bad for a country because the people putting these “deals” together are not developing any set of core skills. They are just taking the money and shifting it around and I can’t believe people are falling for it.
The money created from this then becomes transitory, i.e.it is not permanent and it is not based on any fundamentals because when the regime falls, you are forced to start selling off your assets in order to protect yourself for the coming economic drought.
Biwott started selling off his assets in 2000 because he knew what was going to happen. The same thing with Merali and other guys like that whose “wealth” was linked to favoritism from a particular regime.
There’s a reason most people only started hearing about Transcentury around 2004 and I can guarantee you that if Raila becomes president in 2012, the deals transcentury is putting together will dry out. There’s no genius here. Google is genius. Microsoft is genius. Those companies in India developing cheaper, generic drugs for people…that’s genius. These are the kinds of companies that pull a country out of poverty because they are built on skill and innovation, not deal making at a golf club.
1. I never said you’re wrong. But still; baselessly claiming that the very insititutions that help start factories that produce exports from Kenya is counterproductive. You probably prefer sensational claims but here is a challenge: on your next post, please use facts and figures. Tell what you know.
2. Let’s face it: until we get our shit together re: infrastructure and energy, it’s gonna be a loooong while before we can even imagine to grow like China and India.Sure people say, look at them, Africa is where they were 40 years ago.But Policy has a lot to do with it.
3. You are so stuck up on manufacturing that you have refused to address the inference I made on your post that financing and housing are productive, well, products. The U.S., for instance, employs more people in the services sector, while their stuff is manufactured in cheaper China. You know why we won’t be like China tomorrow? See point 2 above.
Institutions like Transcentury are not starting factories or anything else. They are simply buying stakes in companies that already exist and parastatals that already exist. This is what you do when your prime concern is how to shift money that you have acquired through shady means or pure political favoritism.
2. Let’s face it: until we get our shit together re: infrastructure and energy, it’s gonna be a loooong while before we can even imagine to grow like China and India.Sure people say, look at them, Africa is where they were 40 years ago.But Policy has a lot to do with it.
Policy? This entire post has been about the lack of policy and the wanton theft that is taking place. That’s why there’s not enough money for infrastructure or education or anything else. The money is being diverted into companies like Transcentury (& others) and it’s being expropriated out of the country.
3. You are so stuck up on manufacturing that you have refused to address the inference I made on your post that financing and housing are productive, well, products. The U.S., for instance, employs more people in the services sector, while their stuff is manufactured in cheaper China. You know why we won’t be like China tomorrow? See point 2 above.
Financing and housing are not productive and I am very happy you used America as an example here. The reason the U.S. economy is in such trouble now is precisely because they have destroyed their manufacturing base. They hardly make anything anymore. All they do is shop, shop, shop and this has created an enormous debt burden. They need to return to manufacturing and start making stuff if they hope to revive their economy. This is perhaps the biggest lesson of this global economic crisis: The world of high finance was a mirage. People were trying to create money out of nothing and it all came tumbling down.
It’s a very bad problem for the country because if you are a young, aspiring entrepreneur, how on earth are you going to do it in a country that does not respect fairness, innovation or creativity.
And this is going to become a real problem because 75% of kenya’s population is under the age of 30. You can’t keep locking this huge group of people out of the economic system.
SORRY KE but in my usual shameless way I have decided to hijack this thread in the name of a plug
We in Ghana are ecstatic that Obama’s first state visit to Sub-saharan Africa will be in Ghana. WOO-HOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You see we Ghanaians are on the cusp of a superiority complex:
1) we grew the economy 7.3% last year despite an inflation inducing General Election whereby the opposition party won by 0.3% and safely assumed power with no violence and little fanfare.
2) we’ve struck oil and natural gas in commercial quantities, and the estimates keep increasing by the day….it comes onstream in 2010.
3) The Black Stars are the third best football team in Africa.
4) we havled poverty by 50% in 15 years and are the first low income sub-saharan country on track to reach middle income status by 2015.
Life is good relatively speaking in Ghana and Obama is coming to pat us on the back further reinforcing how good we feel about ourselves
Ayekoo Ghana, Ayekoo!
Sijui:
I’ve never been to Ghana, but a friend of mine was there last year and she was not impressed. She went to the best restaurant in Accra and said that they didn’t even have an option of paying by credit card. She had to carry (in her own words) “a gunia full of cash” just to pay for an ordinary meal.
Maybe when they get the oil things will change.
Outside of Kenya, South Africa is the only other African country that I’d even (slightly) consider living in.
That’s too bad KE
I’ll never have the pleasure of hosting you in Prampram, right on the beach…..but certainly to each his own in terms of opinion, I’ve lived in Nairobi, the U.S., soon to be Arusha, T.Z., but have to say Ghana has stolen my heart. Would not trade it for anywhere at this point, even Cape Town my beloved has fallen out of favor.
Meanwhile preparations in Accra are going to be feverish, it will be like CAN 2008 all over again!
Ghana is waaaaay behind Kenya.
That is a fact.
KE et al,
What Sijui has said is true… as far as the Ghanian economy…. I don’t know so much about halving the poverty. But I know they country is relatively doing well compared to Kenya.
On the downside however, Ghana is dealing with major threats to the economy… Among these are Corruption, Few rich many poor, tribal tension among other problems.
I don’t know why our brother Sijui only has one eye open. He needs to open his other eye and see the real picture.
Its a funny coincidence i’m reading this- I have a Ghanian friend at work who was giving me the same kind of talk as Sijui.
I guess its that time of the year when Ghanians sing and dance about having better balance of payments than many African countries.
**********************************
Sijui,
Since you know so much about Ghana … You should take this opportunity and advertise some products made in Ghana.
I don’t remember ever using a product that says Made in Ghana…
I doubt if Ghana has ever built any World class Industry… Production is what we Kenyans need…. The more we have Made in Kenya on products Abroad … the more better of our people are….
Sijui:
You’ll have a hard time convincing any Kenyan that Ghana is a better option, but why do you think it’s “better” than Kenya?
*It’s landlocked and doesn’t have Kenya’s beautiful beaches;
*It’s hot & humid and lacks Kenya’s mild equatorial climate.
*What real city doesn’t have restaurants where you can pay with a credit card?
So, tell us why Ghana is so much better and maybe you’ll convince me to come and visit.
Do they have 5-star hotels in Accra? and most of all, do they take credit cards?
KE,
Yo…. Dude you’re trippin…. Ghana is NOT Landlocked….
Geez…. Don’t hate on Ghananian’s… They are trying but they are not anywhere close to being a developed country….
KE please avoid this bragging rights game… Its not worth it… At least in my view its not. I don’t know If you stayed around Ghanians… I’m not surprised a Ghanian brought up such a sloppy comment … I’m not a surprised…
I hope Ghanian’s enjoy ObaMa visit…. Honestly, since Obama became president… the word Kenyan has been in a lot of Ghanian’s talk….
These guys love East Africans… I don’t know why, Its funny, but whenever any person now talks about East Africa everybody wants to join in the conversation.
Kenya cannot be compared to Ghana. Ghana is nyuma sana compared to Kenya. Once again, I have been to Ghana. Accra is very village like. Kumasi is even worse.
Yenyewe, Kenya is still good – even with all its problems.
Kenya is a happening place.
One thing I can tell you, Ghana is very very boring.
Yes, you are right. Sorry about that error and Ghanians are very friendly people.
Anyway, to each their own.
HA! I live for these verbal duels, and predictably Kenyans have a thin skin on this, so please let me elaborate. For the record, I am a KENYAN FEMALE born and raised in Kile who just so happened to get married to a wonderful Ghanaian brother but I digress, let me count the ways in which I have quickly and completed switched allegiances to Ghana:
1) when I first visited Accra in 2002 I was shocked at the time warp in that country. It had been quasi-socialist since 1978 and was way behind in terms of the sophistication of a major metropolis. Then I began to notice things beyond the superficiality of tall shiny buildings, many shopping malls and great restaurants.
2) They have a far better physical infrastructure, paved roads throughout the country that actually had functioning traffic lights, cohesion from the major metropolises in to the rural areas, feeder roads that were functioning……..I began to get it, Rawlings may have been a dictator but he didn’t steal and bleed the country dry.
3) Which leads me to the next important point, Ghana has nowhere near the economic and political dysfunction of Kenya. Again, I had to grudgingly give respect to Rawlings, tribalism exists definitely but through his heavy handed socialist dogma equanimity in terms of political representation was cultivated and has flourished meaning they have a robust and vibrant democracy that is still based on tribal allegiances but they do not have the kind of glaring disparities in terms of stark poverty and inequality in access to resources.
4) So Ghana became a liberal capitalist society really in 2002, and because it had very strong building blocks already in terms of basic physical infrastructure, FUNCTIONING LEGAL AND REGULATORY institutions, and a pretty egalitarian political system, it was easy for them to take off economically.
I caution my Kenyan kinsfolk to some hard truths: Ghana started off ten years ago with 75% of the Purchasing Power Parity of the average Kenyan and they have OVERTAKEN US despite the fact that they have a FAR LESS SOPHISTICATED ECONOMY? WHY IS THAT?
Because they have a GOVERNMENT THAT WORKS and economic growth of between 3-6% per annuam consistently since 1995 has distributed itself quite effectively through the population, halving poverty from 52% in 1996 to 28% now.
Like I said, they will be the first low income country in SSA to reach middle income by 2015. Kenya is not even close to this league DESPITE A FAR BIGGER AND SOPHISTICATED ECONOMY. We may as well join the club, Nigerians have learnt fast to respect their little brada on the West Coast who has now surpassed them.
Personal anecdote, we started our business and built our house in Ghana with very little hassle in terms of either corruption, inefficiency or interference. We have not had to pay ONE SINGLE BRIBE for anything, be it renewing a business license, negotiating with the tax authorities, getting a building permit etc. Again, I am not saying there is NO CORRUPTION in Ghana, just review their level in terms of their standings in Africa.
So all in all, when it comes to quality of life and ease of doing business, they are far better. They do not have as many tall, shining buildings as Nairobi, or as many upscale malls and restaurants….but they do have LESS POVERTY, HIGHER AND FASTER ECONOMIC GROWTH, and a functioning democracy that offers safety and security for the inhabitants.
P.S. They do have 5 star hotels now, built literally in the last 6 years and they do have restaurants that accept visa cards. COME ONE, COME ALL
Sijui,
We wish you all the best with your Ghanian husband.
Can we Switch now and talk about Issues.
?? and how we can Improve them ?
Can’t claim to KNOW Ghana but was in Accra for a week and visited Cape Coast over a weekend last June, and it seemed waaaaay more backwards than Kenya.The Accra CDB compares to somewhere within Nyeri, nothing near Nairobi. But still, living there vs and staying for week? You know whose opinion carries more weight.
opinion from KE.
But bags of cash sounds more like a lie,unless things have changed substatially in the last year. The cedi was tied to the dollar it’s not ‘bulky’ at all.
That’s my take, back to read some more ‘expert’
Yep the cash thing is symptomatic of how the country has changed. Both accounts are CORRECT. Ghana’s currency was worthless until 2007, YOU HAD TO CARRY suitcases of cash because 1 US Dollar= 9, 600 cedis, and a Coke costs around 14,000 cedis so imagine how many wads of notes you needed to carry for a dinner of two.
Then the brilliant Central Bank Governor redenominated the cedi meaning 10, 000 cedis was converted to GHC 1 so $ 1 was transformed to GHC 0.96 cents overnight. The old currency notes were completely phased out of the system and it was like magic and all the suitcases dissappeared overnight.
On a more serious note, SMEs like us rejoiced and are still rejoicing, we could quote our rates in US dollars because of the equivalent value of the new Ghana cedi, and because we import all our hardware of course, the fact that the Ghana cedi was stronger than the dollar for a while meant substantial savings for us. Now we are pissed off because the Ghana cedi is depreciating to GHC 1.40 to the dollar, and it has a lot to do with the new, less business friendly government. But that is a discussion for another day…….
Okay Sijui, you have made your case very well. Essentially what you have said is that Ghana’s fundamentals (the rule of law, democracy, less government bureacracy, etc, etc) – bode well for it’s future and that Kenya, while it may look “richer” from the outside is actually a much more unequal society.
I am surprised that having seen what you have seen in Ghana, you are still not willing to admit that the kind of crony capitalism that currently exists in Kenya today is creating a small minority of super-rich people whose path to wealth is largely defined by their access to statehouse and this kind of crony capitalism does in the end create a very unequal society, which is what we have in Kenya today.
PKW:
I don’t know why this post has really angered you, but those guys are thieves and without access to Kibaki, they’d have remained a simple “kiamaa”.
Who is that young CEO they put there?: He better not lose the money that his daddies friends are stealing. Although he may just be the public face of the company. I doubt he has any real power.
KE,
I don’t think Trancentury is the problem. May be until proper investigations are carried out to show if its a place to wash up dirty money stolen from public coffers.
I’ve always thought virtually all successful businesses in Kenya are one way or another a place to wash up dirty money.
Especially the ones that report steady profits every year. I don’t know what you mean. If they’re is no probable cause or real grounds to justify your claim then there is no case you making !!