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What to expect in Eldoret<br />

August Eldoret<br />

Tour<br />

WAYS TO CURE A<br />

NASTY HANGOVER


Editorial<br />

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-Davide Wandere


Contents:<br />

Railway wanderes<br />

Editorial<br />

Chairmans Message<br />

RWFC Sports<br />

August Eldoret Tour<br />

Photos of the month<br />

Lifestyle<br />

Fun Facts<br />

Jokes<br />

Health & Nutrition<br />

Ways to Cure a Nasty Hangover<br />

Keeping Fit<br />

Politics<br />

How to treat a Hangover<br />

Keeping Fit<br />

Finance and Business


Long Live The Railway<br />

Wanderers FC!<br />

his month of February, we have kick the second part of the<br />

season properly. Committee seat and agreed to work<br />

already for the remaining season as Master, Ball, tours etc …<br />

Interesting tour in Dar with Scottish fellow. Kenyua , Iso and<br />

I working round a clock to finalize on the cooperation with Kfeet and<br />

FKF. Some delay due to the issue of private developer taking some<br />

land of FKF. Look this story is behind due to the power of social<br />

Media.<br />

We had also a fantastic Nanyuki tour with some introduction of Red<br />

hot chili pepper.A lot of alcohol and little sleep. O windows behave<br />

nicely and didn’t peep this year. We are now going to the busy end of<br />

season and enjoyable one. Hoping to see maximum members participating<br />

to it. Last the financial situation is better and thanks to<br />

members to have made the effort to clear the situation.Why did I get<br />

divorced? Well, last week was my birthday. My wife didn’t wish me a<br />

happy birthday. My parents forgot and so did my kids.<br />

I went to work and even my colleagues didn’t wish me a happy birthday.As<br />

I entered my office, my secretary said, “Happy birthday, boss!”<br />

I felt so special. She asked me out for lunch. After lunch, she invited<br />

me to her apartment. We went there and she said, “Do you mind if I<br />

go into the bedroom for a minute?” “Okay,” I said. She came out 5<br />

minutes later with a birthday cake, my wife, my parents, my kids, my<br />

friends, & my colleagues all yelling, “SURPRISE!!!” while I was waiting<br />

on the sofa... naked.<br />

~Olivier – Chairman<br />

Chairman@rwfc.or.ke


What to expect in Eldoret<br />

AUGUST ELDORET<br />

TOUR 2016<br />

through the town, but this proved linguistically<br />

challenging for the South African<br />

Voortrekkers and they named it Eldoret<br />

(darn immigrants!)*:D big grin<br />

Story time: There are unverified urban tales<br />

of an unmanned pub in the then Eldore<br />

where revelers would walk in, drink and<br />

leave money at the counter. One day, three<br />

patrons (possibly Olivier, Geordie and<br />

Kenyua) found the pub door locked. They<br />

bashed, charged, Olomide-ed and<br />

unhinged the doors, drunk the beers, left<br />

money on the bar counter and staggered<br />

off. For many years after that, the bar<br />

remained without a door! (SOURCE: MelaniaTrump<br />

and The Business daily).<br />

It is said that Eldoret is a re-known hot bed<br />

of world records and medals, a fast growing<br />

service town straddling the Kenya–Uganda<br />

highway. Well, I do hope the<br />

mighty RWFC gets hot beds, well serviced<br />

and straddled in this premier tour. WEL-<br />

COME!!<br />

Travel advisory: It gets very cold in the<br />

evening and night, temps way below 12°C<br />

(54°F) so ensure you have SOMETHING or<br />

SOMEONE WARM!<br />

WFC tour Eldoret August 19th 20th.<br />

Apparently, this town was built by<br />

South African Boer rogues who had had<br />

enough of Brexit I mean eeeeh British rule<br />

and trekked all the way north to “peacefully”<br />

settle here in 1910 (They must have been<br />

really pissed to walk that far!?). The Maasai<br />

originally called this vast area eldore<br />

meaning stony river with reference to the<br />

stony bed of the Sosiani river that flows<br />

-Dr. Jijo


FOOTBALL<br />

FUN FACTS<br />

1.In 1967, the Nigerian<br />

Civil War<br />

ground to a halt for<br />

two days because<br />

both sides wanted<br />

to watch soccer<br />

player Pele in an<br />

exhibition match.<br />

2. After the whistle<br />

to start the game,<br />

soccer player Lee<br />

Todd said "F*ck me,<br />

that was loud" and<br />

received thefastest<br />

red card in history:<br />

2 seconds.<br />

3.The city of Lusail,<br />

host of the 2022<br />

FIFA World Cup<br />

Final game,does<br />

not exist yet.<br />

4.Famous soccer<br />

player MarioBalotelli<br />

is an Italian, born<br />

to immigrants from<br />

Ghana, raised by a<br />

Jewish mother.<br />

5. A Liverpool fan<br />

killed himself when<br />

his team was 3-0<br />

down in the 2005<br />

Champions League<br />

final's first half. They<br />

came back to win<br />

the game in the<br />

second half.<br />

6. Soccer player<br />

DidierDrogba is<br />

credited with brokering<br />

a cease-fire in<br />

his home country of<br />

Ivory Coast that<br />

brought a five-year<br />

civil war to an end.<br />

7.FIFA has more<br />

member countriesthan<br />

the U.N.


Arrival of Olympic Torch<br />

Met With Protests in Rio<br />

Police tear-gassed crowds<br />

protesting the high cost<br />

of hosting the Games<br />

The Olympic torch arrived in Rio de<br />

Janeiro Wednesday after a three<br />

month tour through cities around<br />

Brazil. Rio’s mayor Eduardo Paes<br />

paraded the torch on its first few laps<br />

around the city center, ahead of the<br />

Olympic opening ceremony on<br />

Friday, the BBC reports.<br />

But police had to intervene as a<br />

crowd of protesters tried to disrupt<br />

the torch relay in the north of the city,<br />

demonstrating against the high cost<br />

of hosting the Games while Brazil<br />

faces a political and economic crisis.


FITNESS<br />

Riot police reportedly used<br />

tear gas to break up the demonstrators<br />

after they refused<br />

to leave a lane open for the<br />

procession.<br />

This is not the first time the<br />

torch relay has been disrupted.<br />

Last week, a crowd protesting<br />

a lack of public transport<br />

and late payment of salaries<br />

reportedly resulted in<br />

the Olympic torch being<br />

extinguished.<br />

Olympic organizers announced<br />

Thursday that they<br />

would give away more than<br />

200,000 tickets to underprivileged<br />

schoolchildren. The<br />

first events of Rio 2016 have<br />

already kicked off but more<br />

than 1 million tickets have yet<br />

to be sold.


Football Travel<br />

Corner<br />

TOP 5 STADIUMS AROUND<br />

THE WORLD BASED ON THEIR<br />

CAPACITY<br />

-Alfie<br />

1. CAMP NOU – 99,786<br />

Long regarded as one of the most iconic club<br />

stadiums in world football today, the fact that<br />

it is also the largest is merely coincidental. The<br />

continued success enjoyed by Barca such as<br />

theTreble during the 2014/2015 season<br />

ensures that the Nou Camp is synonymous<br />

with glory, further cementing it in the minds<br />

of young football fans around the world.<br />

3. FNB STADIUM – 94,736<br />

Constructed for the 2010 World Cup in<br />

South Africa, First National Bank Stadium is<br />

the largest ground in Africa, and was a natural<br />

choice to the host the final. Known as The<br />

Calabash, due to its resemblance to the African<br />

Pot, it is now used on a more regular<br />

basis by Kaizer Chiefs F.C.<br />

5. WESTFALENSTADION – 80,667<br />

Known now as Signal Iduna Park due to<br />

sponsorship reasons, Borussia Dortmund’s<br />

Westfalenstadion is often said to be home to<br />

the finest matchday atmosphere in Europe.<br />

Famous for the Südtribüne which is the largest<br />

single-tiered stand in the World, it alone<br />

is capable of accommodating 24,454 fans<br />

which is larger than most stadiums!


2. ESTADIO AZTECA –<br />

95,500<br />

Recognised as the joint<br />

home of Club América and<br />

the Mexican National Team,<br />

Estadio Azteca is the first<br />

stadium to have hosted two<br />

World Cup finals ahead of<br />

the Maracana. It isperhaps<br />

most famous in England for<br />

providing the backdrop<br />

Maradona’s “Hand of God”<br />

goal in the 1986 World Cup<br />

quarter final. Approx.<br />

4. SANTIAGO BERNABÉU – 85,454<br />

Very similar to Old Trafford in its development,<br />

Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu<br />

dates back to the first half of the 20th century,<br />

and has developed through a series of<br />

expansions over the years. It has hosted no<br />

less than four Champions League finals<br />

including most recently in 2010.


PICTURES OF<br />

THE MONTH<br />

RWFC


Ways to Cure a<br />

Nasty Hangover<br />

You know better than to buy anything labeled<br />

"hangover cure" after a wild night, but there<br />

has to be something out there to ease the<br />

overall sense of feeling like crap—right? Here<br />

are some hangover remedies.<br />

WATER: is a must to cure a hangover. As you<br />

likely know from the frequent trips to the bathroom<br />

during a night of debauchery, alcohol is a<br />

diuretic and can cause dehydration.<br />

COFFEE:Lots of people—hungover or not—use a<br />

cup of joe to wake up and feel alert at work. But<br />

a trip to Starbucks won't give you lasting benefits,<br />

and caffeine can both treat and cause<br />

headaches and migraines, so this one is a personal<br />

preference. If you do down a cup to cure<br />

a hangover, be sure to drink water, too, since<br />

studies suggest caffeine causes dehydration.<br />

GREASY FOOD: What you eat after drinking<br />

doesn't matter—it's what you eat before all<br />

those Jagerbombs that can help lessen the<br />

hangover the next day. Food helps slow the<br />

absorption of alcohol, and the longer it takes<br />

the alcohol to reach your blood stream, the<br />

longer it is until you become intoxicated.<br />

TOAST OR CRACKERS: Remember when your<br />

mom gave you toast as a kid when you<br />

couldn't keep anything down? This is good<br />

advice for adults who've spent the night hugging<br />

the porcelain throne, too. While no food<br />

can halt the roller coaster in your stomach,<br />

carbs can help bring your blood sugar levels<br />

back up the morning after.Normally when<br />

blood sugar levels dip, your liver reacts by producing<br />

more glucose from stored carbs. But if<br />

you've been drinking too much, your liver is<br />

busy metabolizing the alcohol and can't<br />

handle the extra work, so your blood sugar<br />

levels stay down, and you can feel irritable<br />

and tired.<br />

THE BEST CURE: PREVENTION: You're a<br />

grown man, you know to drink responsibly.<br />

But just in case you forgot: Limit your drinks to<br />

about one every hour. Your body metabolizes<br />

each beer (or wine or shot) in about 60 to 75<br />

minutes,Drink faster, and your blood alcohol<br />

level rises faster and you risk a hangover. Eat<br />

before you drink<br />

PAIN MEDICATION: Ease a pounding head<br />

with a pill (or two, depending on the recommended<br />

dosage), but stick to nonsteroidal<br />

anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs, such as<br />

aspirin, ibuprofen, and naproxen).


Why Are Staying<br />

Active and Eating<br />

Well So Important?<br />

Because the results are amazing:<br />

A HEALTHY HEART<br />

Regular physical activity and a healthy diet<br />

can lower your blood pressure and cholesterol<br />

levels and can reduce the risk of illnesses<br />

such as type 2 diabetes or heart disease.<br />

STRONG BONES<br />

Exercise, combined with fat-free or low-fat<br />

dairy products and other foods rich in calcium,<br />

is necessary to build strong, healthy<br />

bones and can help slow the bone loss associated<br />

with getting older.<br />

A SENSE OF WELL-BEING<br />

Being in good shape can give you more<br />

energy, reduce anxiety and depression,<br />

improve self-esteem, and help you better<br />

manage stress.<br />

A GOOD SOCIAL LIFE<br />

Staying active is a great way to have fun,<br />

make new friends, and spend quality time<br />

with family.<br />

LOOKING AND FEELING BETTER<br />

You look better when you’re in shape and<br />

eating right. Staying active helps you tone<br />

muscles and improve your posture. Both<br />

moving more and eating healthy are important<br />

to maintaining a healthy weight.


FINANCE<br />

The 2016<br />

SDG<br />

Business<br />

Forum<br />

- A Recap<br />

The High-level Political<br />

Forum on Sustainable Development<br />

held from July 11-20<br />

2016 at United Nations Headquarters<br />

in New York is an<br />

annual platform for reviewing<br />

progress and guiding<br />

global by 2030. During the<br />

first HLPF oriented towards<br />

the SDGs, the global business<br />

community was present in a<br />

very substantial way, organizing<br />

an SDG Business Forum<br />

to share business efforts<br />

already under way during the<br />

first year of SDG implementation<br />

The International<br />

Chamber of Commerce (ICC)<br />

and the UN Global Compact<br />

were the lead organisers of<br />

the SDG Business Forum<br />

along with the United<br />

Nations Department of Economic<br />

and Social Affairs and<br />

the ICC-led Global Business<br />

Alliance for 2030.Business for<br />

2030 helped curate one of<br />

the day’s sessions, which featured<br />

a 17 person ‘rapid fire’<br />

review of 17 different business<br />

people addressing each<br />

SDG. Below are key points<br />

and outcomes from a few of<br />

the SDG Business Forum’s<br />

sessions.High-Level Welcome<br />

Plenary H.E. Mr. Thomas Gass,<br />

Assistant Secretary-General,<br />

Policy Coordination &<br />

Inter-Agency Affairs, UN<br />

Department of Economic &<br />

Social Affairs, stated that “the<br />

2030 Agenda is the product of<br />

a transparent, inclusive, and<br />

participatory process,” that the<br />

spirit of shared ownership<br />

must live on, and that stakeholders<br />

must feel the agenda<br />

is theirs to implement. Additionally,<br />

Mr. Gass noted that<br />

diverse partnerships must be<br />

formed for the implementation<br />

of the SDGs and that<br />

there is a great opportunity to<br />

build partnerships across businesses.<br />

Carolyn Miles, CEO,<br />

Save the Children, highlighted<br />

the work her organization has<br />

completed in collaboration<br />

with the private sector. For<br />

instance, in 2012, Save the<br />

Children worked with UNICEF<br />

on developing a framework for<br />

the rights of children in business<br />

“UNICEF’s Children’s<br />

Rights and Business Principles.”<br />

Ms. Miles noted that the<br />

launch of the SDGs allows<br />

Save The Children to pair<br />

private profits with public<br />

good through partnerships<br />

with, companies such as<br />

GlaxoSmithKline, with whom<br />

it has co-developed a<br />

heat-stable gel for umbilical<br />

chords, which has saved thousands<br />

of lives. Following the<br />

opening of the Forum, John<br />

Danilovich, the ICC Secretary<br />

General and Lise Kingo, the<br />

Executive Director of the UN<br />

Global Compact, signed a<br />

Memorandum of Understanding<br />

that formalized<br />

many of the ways the two<br />

organizations have already<br />

been closely collaborating.<br />

The MOU stressed, among<br />

other things, the need to<br />

enhance UN engagement<br />

with business around the<br />

SDGs and the potential for<br />

further increasing business<br />

and industry engagement in<br />

the implementation of the<br />

2030 Agenda.<br />

Session 1: Business for<br />

Agenda 2030<br />

In a series of rapid fire presentations,<br />

business representatives<br />

highlighted examples<br />

of what they are doing<br />

to implement each SDG and<br />

move Agenda 2030 forward.<br />

Click here for a brief recap of<br />

all 17 presentations. Most of<br />

the initiatives are now also<br />

featured on the Business for<br />

2030 website, created by<br />

USCIB, which now has 160<br />

initiatives by 45 companies<br />

taking place in over 150<br />

countries that relate to 80 of<br />

the 169 SDG targets. Several<br />

USCIB members, including<br />

Baker McKenzie, MasterCard,<br />

Novozymes, and Pfizer provided<br />

case studies during the


panel. The dynamic session<br />

was ably moderated by H.E. Mr.<br />

Ib Petersen, Ambassador to the<br />

UN for Denmark, who kept the<br />

diverse interventions from the<br />

17 business speakers and several<br />

Member States and others from<br />

the floor all within the two-hour<br />

time limit, setting, what Mr.<br />

Petersen said, must have been a<br />

UN-record. Session 2: Private<br />

Sector Investment in the 2030<br />

Agenda: Going from Billions to<br />

Trillions This session analyzed,<br />

from a private and public sector<br />

viewpoint, how business can be<br />

more engaged in defining the<br />

policy reform agenda, particularly<br />

with respect to anti-corruption,<br />

peace and the rule of<br />

law, which ultimately can facilitate<br />

private sector investments<br />

and operations.Jay Collins, Vice<br />

Chairman of Corporate and<br />

Investment Banking of USCIB<br />

member Citigroup Inc., focused<br />

on the importance of measurement<br />

in working towards the<br />

SDGs: more indicators are<br />

needed to help smaller businesses<br />

report their progress. Mr.<br />

Collins also referred to green<br />

bonds as an example of utilizing<br />

markets to achieve the<br />

SDGs. The green bonds market<br />

has blossomed into a $40<br />

billion business, and still has<br />

room for improvement. Moreover,<br />

Mr. Collins underlined the<br />

need for markets to impact<br />

multiple SDGs in order to move<br />

“billions to trillions.” To target<br />

more SDGs, Mr. Collins recommended<br />

creating new metrics<br />

so that markets can be created<br />

around them. Mr. Collins concluded<br />

with the remark that<br />

partnerships have yielded progress<br />

toward multiple SDGs, and<br />

should be continued as a<br />

result.Manuel Sager, Director<br />

General, Swiss Agency for<br />

Development and Cooperation,<br />

discussed improving the investment<br />

climate, beginning<br />

with eliminating corruption.<br />

Secondly, Mr. Sager used the<br />

example of the Swiss Capacity<br />

Building Facility as a way<br />

to reduce costs by providing<br />

grants for financial service<br />

providers in other countries<br />

so as to assist the poorer<br />

population. Thirdly, Mr. Sager<br />

spoke about leveraging<br />

private funds through guarantees,<br />

derisking, and microfinance.<br />

The latter now<br />

amounts to over $1 billion in<br />

investments, but Mr. Sager<br />

warned that one has to be<br />

particularly careful with<br />

microfinance, as it could<br />

cause heavy losses in the job<br />

market. Mr. Sager concluded<br />

by highlighting the importance<br />

of sharing information.<br />

Li Yong, Director General of<br />

the United Nations Industrial<br />

and Development Organization<br />

(UNIDO), spoke about<br />

the past success of Private<br />

Public Partnerships (PPPs),<br />

referring to a repertoire of<br />

government partnerships he<br />

worked on under UNIDO and<br />

in China. Mr. Yong noted<br />

that PPPs are very much a<br />

proven method and should<br />

be continued. In particular,<br />

Mr. Yong cited his experience<br />

at the Asian Development<br />

Bank (ADB), in which the<br />

government’s involvement<br />

tripled Foreign Direct Investment<br />

(FDI) in only one year<br />

from $50 billion to $150<br />

billion. Mr. Yong extended<br />

this approach under UNIDO<br />

through the Programme for<br />

Country Partnership (PCP),<br />

which created jobs and<br />

increased income in many<br />

countries.Session 3: Private<br />

Sector Participation in Partnerships<br />

Florinel Andrei<br />

spoke about the success and<br />

rapid expansion of the International<br />

Arbitration Court for<br />

Transport. The initiative offers<br />

the global sector of transport<br />

a modern resolution instrument<br />

for a variety of travel:<br />

road, rail, maritime, air,<br />

energy, etc... The international<br />

arbitration court for transport<br />

is a multimodal institution—the<br />

court has 25 arbitrators<br />

from 12 countries. The<br />

organization has worked<br />

specifically toward SDGs 8, 9,<br />

and 16 (specifically worked<br />

on by The International Network<br />

of Specialized Arbitration).<br />

The heavy expansion of<br />

this committee—most<br />

recently extending to Spain<br />

and Azerbaijan—shows the<br />

success.<br />

Joy Marini discussed the<br />

involvement of Johnson &<br />

Johnson in working toward<br />

SDGs 5 and 6 (on a commit-


FINANCE<br />

African banks<br />

Trouble is stalking<br />

many of Africa’s banks!!<br />

AFRICA’S financial firms can<br />

claim many innovations, from<br />

M-Pesa, a pioneering Kenyan<br />

mobile-money service, to the<br />

life insurance for people with<br />

HIV offered by All Life, a South<br />

African firm. To these can be<br />

added the first social-media<br />

bank run. Chase Bank Kenya,<br />

the country’s 11th-largest (unrelated<br />

to America’s JPMorgan<br />

Chase), was taken over by regulators<br />

in April after word of its<br />

impending collapse spread on<br />

Twitter and WhatsApp, spurring<br />

panicked withdrawals.<br />

The run highlighted the risks<br />

facing banks in a region that is<br />

seen by many investors as one<br />

of the industry’s final frontiers.<br />

Whereas banks in many rich<br />

countries have produced<br />

disappointing profits since the<br />

financial crisis of 2008, African<br />

ones had until recently been<br />

reporting stellar growth and<br />

juicy returns. Those in Ghana<br />

were expanding their loan<br />

books at a breathtaking pace<br />

of more than 30% a year.<br />

Banks in Mozambique,<br />

Zambia and Malawi were<br />

not too far behind. And<br />

most were making good<br />

money, too.<br />

Moody’s, a rating agency,<br />

reckons that average return<br />

on equity (a standard measure<br />

of profitability) ranged<br />

from 20-25% in many African<br />

countries, making their<br />

banks well over twice as<br />

profitable as American ones<br />

and four or five times more<br />

profitable than Europe’s<br />

limping lenders. Yet in many<br />

parts of sub-Saharan Africa<br />

these mouthwatering profits<br />

are turning into losses as<br />

a result of falling commodity<br />

prices, slowing economies<br />

and, in some cases,<br />

weak regulation.<br />

Nigeria, Africa’s biggest<br />

economy, seems on the<br />

brink of its second banking<br />

crisis in less than a decade.<br />

On July 4th the central<br />

bank dismissed the management<br />

of Skye Bank, the<br />

country’s eighth-biggest<br />

lender by assets, amid concerns<br />

that it had failed to<br />

keep thick enough buffers of<br />

capital to absorb losses on<br />

its bad debts. Its share price<br />

has plunged by about a<br />

quarter since the move. The<br />

shares of other Nigerian<br />

banks are also sinking.<br />

The central bank insists that<br />

“there is… no need for panic<br />

withdrawals from any bank.”<br />

Yet Skye’s managerial maelstrom<br />

harks back ominously<br />

to 2009, when the global<br />

financial crisis caused several<br />

of Nigeria’s bigger banks to<br />

collapse. Back then the<br />

central bank replaced the<br />

bosses of eight institutions.<br />

A state-backed agency<br />

known as Amcon was established<br />

to swallow up bad<br />

loans; the sickliest outfits<br />

were either nationalised or<br />

sold to other banks.<br />

Today’s sticky issue is oil.<br />

During the financial crisis<br />

the price of oil slumped only


iefly before recovering<br />

strongly. Nigerian banks<br />

subsequently lent billions to<br />

local businessmen to help<br />

them buy oil and gas wells.<br />

These loans, about 25% of<br />

the country’s total, seemed<br />

quite safe until the oil price<br />

began dropping in<br />

mid-2014; it is now less than<br />

half what it was then. Militancy<br />

in the oil-pumping<br />

Niger Delta has only made<br />

matters worse.<br />

Afren, an exploration company,<br />

went bust last year.<br />

Oando, a leading local oil<br />

producer, admits “significant<br />

doubt” about its ability to<br />

repay loans. “The interest is<br />

racking up,” says Kola Karim<br />

of Shoreline Energy, another<br />

local producer, which had to<br />

turn off its taps after bandits<br />

bombed a pipeline in February.<br />

And even firms that are<br />

not in the oil business may<br />

struggle to service their<br />

debts thanks to the economy’s<br />

broader malaise: the<br />

IMF reckons it will shrink by<br />

1.8% this year.<br />

First Bank, Nigeria’s second-largest<br />

by assets, says<br />

that 18% of its loans are<br />

non-performing. It may be<br />

suffering more than most,<br />

since more than 40% of its<br />

loans went to oil and gas<br />

producers. The central bank<br />

says that bad debts in the<br />

banking system as a whole<br />

have doubled in the past six<br />

months, to 10%. Emmanuel<br />

Assiak of Africa Capital Alliance,<br />

a private-equity firm,<br />

thinks the figure is really in<br />

the low teens. “A lot of<br />

people are saying this is not<br />

2009. Well it’s worse,” says<br />

Ronak Gadhia of Exotix, an<br />

investment bank. “Back<br />

then, they didn’t have the<br />

exposure to oil.”<br />

Banks are also under pressure<br />

elsewhere in the region,<br />

often for similar reasons. In<br />

Ghana non-performing<br />

loans have jumped to more<br />

than 16% of the total after<br />

slumping commodity prices<br />

and a plunging currency<br />

forced the central bank to<br />

ramp up interest rates. It<br />

raised them by five percentage<br />

points, to 26%, a level at<br />

which almost all borrowers<br />

will struggle. Zimbabwean<br />

banks hold lots of government<br />

bonds that will probably<br />

never be repaid. They<br />

have only staved off runs by<br />

limiting withdrawals.<br />

In Kenya, however, banks<br />

face a different set of stresses.<br />

Weak regulation, exacerbated<br />

by the proliferation of<br />

small banks, is taking a toll.<br />

Three banks have been<br />

placed into receivership in<br />

less than a year by Patrick<br />

Njoroge, the respected<br />

governor of the Central Bank<br />

of Kenya, as a series of ruinous<br />

insider-lending scams<br />

have come to light. Mr<br />

Njoroge alleges that the<br />

managing director of one<br />

bank siphoned off 38 billion<br />

Kenya shillings ($335m) via<br />

20 shell companies over 13<br />

years . The full scale of the<br />

heist was discovered a few<br />

days after his funeral. At<br />

Chase Bank, the victim of<br />

the social-media run, directors<br />

had signed off on some<br />

8 billion shillings in loans to<br />

themselves.<br />

Mr Njoroge seems determined<br />

to clean up Kenya’s<br />

banking system. But elsewhere<br />

in Africa regulators<br />

still seem willing to turn a<br />

blind eye to problems. Forcing<br />

banks to admit to rising<br />

bad debts could lead to<br />

painful collapses and to<br />

strained public finances if<br />

governments have to step in<br />

with bail-outs. But ignoring<br />

them might be even worse<br />

in the long run. As it is, businesses<br />

in Africa struggle to<br />

obtain enough capital to<br />

grow: despite rapid loan<br />

growth, most African countries<br />

still have low banking<br />

penetration. Allowing<br />

zombie banks to limp on,<br />

too weakened by bad loans<br />

to make any new ones,<br />

would only worsen Africa’s<br />

desperate shortage of credit.<br />

-the Economist.

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