Global Bug Bites: 25% Lay Off @ Zain

Thanks to @louizah tweets

I’m informed that Zain has announced a plan to lay off 141 workers in its Kenya subsidiary as it restructures to wedge off the expected effects of the global economic recession on the African continent. The firm also plans to outsource some of its functions including network building, operations and information technology systems, and make some strategic acquisitions on the continent. The Group has set aside USD1-2 billion for its Africa’s operation in 2009.

Despite Zain Kenya's growing subscriber base to 3.07 million (18% market share), the mobile service provide registered huge losses last year. its main competitor’s – Safaricom, has over 13.3 million subscribers or 77% of the market.

Enter the Kingdom

Cooperative bank has finally sealed the coffin for Bob Mathews Stockbrokers by buying the troubled broker off (was the Ksh.20 million part of the deal or a song buy?). The bank has acquired 60% of the brokerage firm, taking with it the 12,000 accounts and the entire Bob's staff (excluding the owner). The bank now takes over full management control of the brokerage firm and has already rebranded it to ‘Kingdom Securities Limited’. The deal has not yet been approved by CMA and coop bank shareholders.

Mulika Mwizi: Pyramid Schemes Die Hard

Thanks to Rafiki Kenya tweets

Even after several Kenyans lost millions of hard earned money to shoddy investment schemes such as Deci and Sasa, pyramid schemes seems not to be dying out. There is a new con artist in town (The Net Wealth) who even targets post-election violence victims as its model clients. Any one reading this should please keep off such schemes that promise heaven and earth. If its too good to be true….then it isn’t. Guess I’ve done my part in the mulika mwizi (spot a thieve) campaign.

Wikipedia has a detailed analysis why pyramid schemes don't work, but this illustration summarises it all:

Safaricom Robbery: Shape Up or Shape Out!

I almost missed this mail from a reader who is so annoyed by Safaricom's service that he had to say something about it. Many of us may have fallen victim to this injustice but never noticed or blamed someone else. No wonder they make billions as their competitors make more losses.

Dear Editor

I am writing this on Wednesday March 11, 2009 at 11:30pm. I am worried because I have had a very strange occurrence which I have never imagined can be happening in this era of IT. In the course of the day I loaded my safaricom number with Kshs. 400 only. I made various calls to my friends, relatives and enemies. I used the same to browse the web for my mails and other information I wanted from the web, which I believe helped me keep in touch with my environment.

However towards the time at which I am writing this mail, I made a call which lasted 3 minutes and 49 seconds, which according to my tariff (Ongea) should have cost me Ksh. 30.54.

However due to abnormal reduction of my credit balance I was forced to call customer care. The first time I called, I was told that there is call log update time lag of 10 minutes. I did wait for the proscribed 10 minutes and called again. This time I was lucky because the log was now complete and I was given a complete audit of how my meager 400 bob was spent.

Believe it or not the aforementioned call of 3:49 long cost me Kshs. 70.62. I am just wondering whether this is a thing that regularly happens at Safaricom. Is this the main contributor towards the billions they are going to post at the end of the year?

As a hustler trying to make ends meet in this economic near melt down era, I have lost confidence in this service provider. The Customer care service executive I talked to promised me that she has forwarded my complain (She never told me to who) and that I shall get my refund within 48 hours. I told her that I hope I shall receive what is justly due to me.

I am perplexed because it took them only 3 minutes and 49 seconds to get Kshs 40.08 from me which was not due to them. Why should it take them a whole 48 hours to refund me the same? How many unsuspecting Kenyans are undergoing this kind of robbery without noticing while imagining that its their wayward sons, daughters, spouses and siblings misusing their handsets?

I do feel that Safaricom should come clear and inform the public of what they are doing to ensure that the public gets quality service at an affordable price. So far they are the most expensive even though I have remained loyal to them.

This incident has been a loud wakeup call and safaricom should be sure that should they not a visible move towards thinking of me (Clients) before the billions and silverware they will bag, then one day not so much in the future they might find themselves in the Panpaper Webuye paper Mills Ltd Situation. It would be a shame on all of us and an example of greedy executives not caring about their clients and investors.

Thank you.

Yours faithfully
E. O. Otipa

Gates Back at the Top on Forbes Rich-List

Forbes magazine has released its annual list of the world's richest people, most of who have been hit really hard by the global financial crisis. Total net worth of the 2009 list is US$.2.4 trillion - down from US$.4.4 trillion in 2008. Total world billionaires reduced to 793 from 1,125 in 2008, as more billionaires fell off the list with the crisis. The average net worth per billionaire on the list dropped 23% to US$.3 billion from 3.9 billion dollars in 2008.

According to Forbes, the top 10 richest people in the world and their net worth are as follows:

Name	Company	Net worth US$’billions’	Change in Net worth compared to 2008
William Gates III	Microsoft	40	-31%
Warren Buffet	Berkshire Hathaway	37	-40%
Carlos Slim	Telecom	35	-35%
Larry Ellison	Oracle	22.5	-10%
Ingvar Kamrad	Ikea	22	-29%
Karl Albrecht	Aldi	21.5	-20%
Mukesh Ambani	Petrochemicals	19.5	-55%
Lakshmi Mittal	Steel	19.3	-57%
Theo Albrecht	Aldi, Trader Joe's	19.3	-16%
Amencia Ortega	Zara	18.3	-9%

Billionaires by region:

Region	Billionaires	Net worth US$.’Billions’
US	359	1,100
Europe	196	655
Asia-Pacific	130	357
MidEast/Africa	58	156
Latin America	50	175

Changes in the world billionaires list: 44 new billionaires joined the list (including a Mexican drug lord), 656 dropped out of the list and 52 didn’t change in position.