THE STANDARD
FINANCIAL STANDARD
Amidst the daily chaos of a city forever in a rush, Uchumi House Towers on Nkrumah Avenue stands stoically as it has for almost 50 years now.
Kencom House shields the building from the matatu madness at the Kencom bus terminus.
Unknown to the milling crowds below, the drab concrete block is the new seat of power of one of the government’s most influential agencies.
The Industrial and Commercial Development Corporation (ICDC), which is housed in the 21-storey Kanu-era relic, is now set to control Kenya’s richest parastatals with assets worth over Sh685 billion and annual revenues of Sh72 billion.
THE STANDARD
FINANCIAL STANDARD
Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani. [File, Standard]
Kenya’s deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will see about 20 State corporations put on the chopping board, with tens of thousands of civil servants at risk of being rendered jobless.
This is after the Washington-based institution commissioned the National Treasury to take a health check of the State-owned enterprises (SOEs) with the largest fiscal risks as part of the plan to restructure inefficient parastatals.
“By end-May 2021, National Treasury will prepare an in-depth forward-looking financial evaluation of the top 15-20 SOEs representing the largest fiscal risks as well as a strategy for addressing financial pressures in the SOE sector,” said the IMF in a detailed report on the Sh253 billion loan facility for Kenya that its executive board approved on Friday.