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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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Ipsum.<br />
-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.