https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/business/article/2001345649/banks-sack-tellers-but-gift-bosses-hefty-perks

If you are a low-cadre employee at a bank, chances are that your job is on the line, as the industry increases uptake of technology in service delivery.

According to a study by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the lenders’ reliance on technology as well as use of low-cost agency outlets has seen about 700 workers laid off.

However, on the flip side, senior employees in the banking sector are getting better pay.

The study noted that despite the total number of people employed by the industry having reduced last year, the amount banks used in remunerating their employees went up.

Pay As You Earn (PAYE) taxes paid by bank employees, according to the study, went up despite a reduction in the sector’s total number of employees, which was attributed to higher pay by senior bankers. Thirty-eight banks, which account for more than 95 per cent of the market share, participated in the survey.

“The number of employees employed by the study participants reduced from 29,053 people in 2017 to 28,352,” read the report, which evaluates the tax contribution of the sector.
“Despite the reduction in employee numbers, the amount of PAYE collected by participating banks grew from Sh18.7 billion in 2017 to Sh19.2 billion in 2018. This trend is due to the increase in wages paid to high cadre employees in the sector and the continued replacement of lower cadre jobs within banks as the sector increasingly adopts technology.”

The layoffs that took place between 2017 and 2018 have continued this year, with the overall headcount in the sector expected to fall further.

The Kenya Bankers Association (KBA) noted that as much as there had been layoffs in the industry, there were other jobs that were being created and available to junior banking staff, where they had retooled their skills.

“More jobs are being created, only that these new jobs are different from what was there in the yesteryears,” said Habil Olaka, KBA chief executive.

The report by PWC, examining taxes paid by banks, noted that the industry was the single largest sector contributor of taxes. Total tax contribution by the sector stood at Sh99 billion in the year ending December 2018.

Despite the high taxes that the industry pays, PWC noted that rarely were banks considered for incentives.

“For every Sh4 of corporation tax paid in Kenya, approximately Sh1 was paid by the banking sector. This translates to 26 per cent of the corporate taxes collected by KRA,” said Titus Mukora, a tax partner at PWC Kenya.

Not 100%?
Moi wins again.

https://businesstoday.co.ke/k24-tv-and-kameme-sackings-by-mediamax/

MASSACRE. That’s how journalists are describing the ongoing retrenchment at Mediamax Ltd, where 160 employees are being offloaded.

This will rank as one the bloodiest layoff in Kenya’s recent corporate history, and the biggest in media, rivaling Standard Group’s September 2017 sacking of just over 100.

The major casualty so far, according to information reaching Business Today newsdesk, is K24, followed by Kameme TV. At K24, 10 editors are being sent home as the company moves to cut costs and streamline operations.

Virtually all K24 editors have been fired. “K24 has been swept clean,” said an editor at Mediamax. “I am not even sure about myself. The situation is tense.”

Those who have reportedly been given letters include K24 managing editor Fred Njiiri, Frankline Wambugu, the managing editor for Kiswahili and chief anchor; English Managing Editor Boniface Mutakha, and Deputy Managing Editor Ali Mtenzi.

Others shown the door include K24 business editor Tony Timase and Sports Editor Torome Tirike, who moved from Citizen TV.

Things are elephant, acha mediamax most of my midro klass friends are walking on thin very thin string, clients are looking for reasons not to pay, one straight up told me the only way he will pay is if a court orders it, very soon i might have to let some workers go and it kills me because there is nothing i can do, the banks even those we have worked with for very long will not extend credit because they can tell our payments are far in between and dwindling every week,
For mediamax advertisers came into hard times and that obviously affected their business, trust me Keroche Humphrey and the rest who have been hit by KRA can never advertise with Mediamax, funeral and general announcements will not fill the gaps left by the big manufacturers, add to this the social media side and the free newspaper.
I am not sure the repealing of the rate cap will have a huge effect on the economy because banks will be super careful seeing that many firms are at the edge, behind on rent and salaries, tax and deductions like NSSF and NHIF so even a 5 million loan will just not be enough.

The middle class is always the last to get the memo on economic ruin.

https://www.nation.co.ke/news/Economy-in-crisis-World-Bank-warns-of-debt-distress/1056-5330904-8605uiz/index.html

In its Kenya Economic Update for October 2019, to be released today, the Bank notes that, “with 43 per cent of domestic debt expected to mature within one year, the government could face challenges in rolling over such bonds in an environment of no interest rate caps, low subscription rates and over-exposure of commercial banks to these assets”.

Are we staring at serious GOK defaults? or what miracle will happen for GOK to pay these loans with the dwindling tax revenues?