Nearly every mobile phone subscriber has at one point or another ran out credit. In such scenarios, the mostly referred point of redemption is Safaricom’s Okoa Jahazi credit facility. And how innovative and helpful Okoa Jahazi has been.

However, Equity Bank’s Equitel mobile seems to have come with a better option! How so? While with Okoa Jahazi you are charged an interest, Equity Bank’s Equitel has come out as a free credit option.

For every Sh. 100 you Okoa on Safaricom, you are charged Sh. 10 transaction fee. For every Sh. 50 you Okoa on Safaricom, you are charged Sh. 5 transaction fee. For every Sh. 20 you Okoa on Safaricom, you are charged Sh. 2 transaction fee. Interestingly, under Equitel, any Okoa credit facility is not charged a dime.

This is as long as you have an Equitel line and has an active bank account at Equity Bank. From the comfort of your Equitel line, you can access your bank account, and buy airtime for any line licenced to operate in Kenya. This includes Safaricom, Airtel and Orange.

Interestingly, you are charged zero transaction fees, meaning for every sh. 100 airtime you Okoa for a Safaricom line through Equitel, you will receive Sh. 100 without any transaction fees being deducted either from your line or from your bank account.

How do you do this?

• Go to your SIM Toolkit and select My Money.
• Continue to select Buy Airtime/Bundles. The sim will bring up your bank account.
• Click on it and select Buy Airtime and Other Number.
• Select the line for which you wish to be credited. These include Safaricom, Airtel, Yu, Orange and Equitel.
• Enter your phone number and fill in your secret pin number.

Apple’s latest MacBook isn’t a spec update. It’s not an incremental upgrade. It’s a totally different machine, for a different kind of person. It’s also kind of ridiculous.

First of all, it is incredibly, impossibly thin. It’s amazingly sturdy for being so thin, too. The screen, the 2304 x 1400 display is lovely. It’s the most important upgrade this device offers, honestly: once you start using a Retina display it’s hard to go back.

In every way, this is a thing of beauty; it’s no wonder Apple spent so much time talking about the engineering behind it. Everything about the MacBook is about beauty, whether it’s the single USB-C port on the left side—the only port on the entire device save for a headphone jack on the right—or the new Gold, Space Gray, and Silver colors. The Gold is actually much more handsome than gaudy, but the Space Gray is my favorite of the options. It’s dark and sleek, fitting for a device that’s so, so very thin.

The MacBook itself, meanwhile, runs quite well for a device powered by a Core M processor and with no fan inside. Based on a few minutes of web browsing, typing my name over and over in a Pages document, and poking through Numbers, it seems like it’s up to the tasks for which it is clearly meant. It’s not for gaming, it’s probably not for editing video, but it does the basics really well.

source:wired

This article was written by Brian Mbugua who works for URP. 
His opinions do not necessarily represent that of Bizna’s.

Eggs are selling @10bob. Petrol @83.Electricity down by 25%. Some fares have reduced. Now companies are starting to reduce manufactured goods prices.

If low global oil prices hold and investment in power sector comes fruition, the SGR come on board, and the 10,000 tarmac roads under annuity programme, we could be back to Moi era low inflation (except in 93-96)consumer federation and activism need to demand price reduction in every good and service now.

Kibaki grew the economy but hyperinflation eroded any effect on mwananchi.

Hyperinflation is hyperbole but there is no doubt that inflation went haywire in Kibaki regime we had to change the formula of calculating it from arithmetic mean to geometric mean. The underlying inflation was under control and never went double digit.

The inflation that really hit the poor the most is inflation on food prices, housing and other basic commodities. You have to understand that inflation affect people differently. Lower class people whose expenditure consists of mainly food and basic commodities were really hit hard. Middle class and upper class will still afford eggs at 30bob.

Under kibaki regime, inflation was the main issues in 2007 election; it was ODM main agenda that effectively countered Kibaki economic growth.

Inflation has to go hand in hand with rising income levels. Did income rise with inflation under Kibaki????????????

You do not need to be economist to know under Kibaki era, prices of unga rose from kshs 28shs to 150shs! Did the urban poor in kibera seem income levels rising from day income of 100b to 500bob? Maybe? At best it cancels out at worse it responsible for high poverty rates we see around.

In this regime, Uhuruto by hard-work, chance or luckwill deliver 7% growth rate with low inflation and will therefore really dent poverty. And that is the dillema we face a growing economy but with poverty rate stuck at 50%.

If you have been around and reading these kind of projections; then by now you’ll know WB/IMF are normally pessimistic on their projection and normally the Ken economy outperforms their projections; just check recent projections.

By now the WB is making a revision because data for say last two quarters are in. There is no doubt that baring a disaster kenya economy will grow at 7%.

And the good news is that we seem to have finally slain the inflation dragon. This is normally the ‘worse’ quarter due to dry season of Jan-march, however my own anecdotal data seem to suggest a serious drop in prices a deflation in fact.

UhuruRuto government have a real chance to really eradicate poverty at much faster rate than Kibaki.

Here’s part two of a girl’s pledge to her future husband…

Read Part 1

Dear future hubby…

Everyday will start with prayers, you and I kneeling next to our bed. Thanking God for our life, love and marriage. We will ask Him for guidance in everything for US and always ask Him to protect our marriage from all evil. Every Sunday, church is a must. You and I; our family for without God as the pillar no marriage survives.

Supporter

Hubby… there are days I will be in bad moods… there are days i will just want to cry and do nothing else… all i ask of you is to love me in my worst… love my flaws for i am human… and when i push you away hug me and tell me you love me no matter what then leave me alone. There are days you’ll have bad days at work or business. I may not solve the problems but always find comfort in me to talk to me about it together we might come up with something to solve it. Let me be your team player for i will never leave you to suffer alone with anything. If you need time alone, communicate instead of ignoring me… for i will understand it better when you tell me.

Family Advocate

I will love your family like my own and i will never make you choose between me and them at any point for they are also my family. I will always advocate for love and respect between us. And when i am wronged i wont fight with them but talk to you first so that we can know what to do. Don’t wait for me to bad mouth your family to you. Don’t wait for me to treat them in a bad way.

For the bible says your people shall become my people and for life they shall have my best in every way for the love of my life was born unto them.

TO BE CONTINUED tomorrow…

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Do’s

1. Each section of your resume should start with the most recent education, experience or activity to the oldest
2. If you are printing your resume, use white or off-white paper
3. Use a standard font (example Arial) for your resume – avoid fancy serf fonts
4. Text size or your font should be 10–12-points, your name and headings can be larger, 12 points, and the body 10 points
5. Be cautious about overuse of italics and boldface, and be consistent—if you use boldface type for one job title, do so for all job titles
6. Explain any acronyms you use in your resume the first time you mention them, unless the term is a generally known standard or a standard within a given industry that you are applying
7. Use indented statements with bullets, as a general guideline each bullet point should be at least five words and no more than three lines long
8. Use quantities, numbers and dollar values when possible to demonstrate successes or scope of responsibilities
9. Use action words such as contributed, managed, developed, led, operated to describe your responsibilities
10. Put the strongest statements or qualifications at the top
11. Have someone with strong English spelling and grammar skills check your spelling, grammar and punctuation
12. Always…be creative and original without being gimmicky or offensive. For example, if you’re applying for an internship in social sales and marketing, a QR code with your contact info is not gimmicky. It demonstrates your understanding of current social sales strategies.

Don’ts

1. Don’t try to impress with big, fancy words or jargon
2. Don’t use gimmicks. But stay aware of evolving resume trends such as the Twesume* or @TweetMyResume that you might be required to use as part of your internship application
3. Don’t use photos of yourself on your resume unless requested by the employer
4. Don’t include salary history unless requested
5. Don’t include personal information such as: religion, national origin, or political affiliations
6. Don’t use pronoun “I” repeatedly to describe your responsibilities

source:campusjobs

One of the biggest mistakes you can make in the job interview process is not following up your interview with a “thank you.” Bottom line: not sending a “thank you” note can be interpreted as a total lack of interest in the position.

When you get home from an interview (or to a coffee shop, library or other wifi enabled location) draft an email thank you to send to your interviewer.

Here are some simple tips for the post-interview “interview:”

Make the note personalized. While the format can be a template from previous use, ensure that you are adding both a mutual interest or interesting direct discussion that came up in the meeting while reiterating in a single sentence why you’re the perfect fit for the role.

“I appreciate you taking the time to meet with me today. Your perspectives and insights only strengthened my knowing that I am the perfect candidate for the position.”

Send a handwritten note. Reiterate your appreciation of their taking the time to interview you and confidently include that you look forward to joining the team and working to drive success. (These notes should be on professional thank you notes, written legibly, with matching envelopes and mailed the same day as the interview)

“I look forward to the next step in the process and am excited to begin working alongside the team and fulfilling the clients needs.”

Sit back and relax. At this point you don’t want to bombard your contact and besides, you’ve already had a great interview, sent an email thanking them, and reminded them that you are the perfect fit with a handwritten note.

source: campusjob

“Majority of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) owned by families in the country do not want to list on the Nairobi Securities Exchange ( NSE ) fearing loss of clout in their firms and thus being edged out.

A new report by capital market players revealed that family enterprises are hesitant to share their businesses information with the public as required in law once an entity is made public. Stephen Wells, one of the report authors, said that the SMEs are always reluctant to relinquish control and be subjected to new and tight regulation regime.

The report, “Review of Growth Enterprise Market Segment (GEMS) and increasing access to Kenya’s capital market by SMEs” was launched together with a working group to implement the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) Master Plan of 2014-2023.

The report has been subjected to public consultation before its final implementation. A team of experts drawn from Capital Markets Authority (CMA), NSE, and Financial Service Deepening (FSD) – a programme supporting development of financial markets in Kenya – were involved to the development of the report.

Family-oriented enterprises are equally discouraged by the cost charged when they list. “They prefer operating under their own terms mostly dictated by their past history. Most of SMEs are 100 per cent owned and controlled by the family members. Further, they operate successful business in the country and undertaking mega development projects,” said Mr Wells during the launch of the report at a Nairobi hotel yesterday.

He said the combined cost of nominated transaction adviser and legal firm to support a listing is between Sh2 and Sh4 million while the NSE’s initial charge fees for a listing is Sh150, 000. In addition to these fees, Well said listed firms must pay Central Depository & Settlement Corporation (CDSC) between Sh500,000 and Sh1 million for incorporating and maintaining the share register.

This, Well added, is over and above indirect cost such as getting adequate accounts to comply with the listing requirements, the cost of complying with governance and management requirements, as well as the cost of management time diverted from running the business toward managing the listing process.

“Some of the families believe that because they have struggled to sustain their businesses, there is no need for them to graduate to public companies through the NSE,” he said. Once made public, the companies have to adhere to good corporate governance, tax regime and have to adopt global best business practices.

However, Nairobi Securities Exchange Chief Executive Geoffrey Odundo said the trend of SMEs owned by families is slowly changing owing to increased awareness and changing dynamics in the business sector. “For example, in the last two years of GEMs, four have been listed and more are likely to be listed before the end of end of the current financial year,” he said.

Acting Director in charge of Regulatory Policy and Strategy at CMA Luke Ombara said that SMEs once they agree to list must cede 15 per cent of their shareholding to new shareholdings. “Majority of SMEs have a perception that surrendering part of shareholding to other players will reduce their influence in the business and thus be edged out,” said Ombara.”

I came across this pledge by a girl to her future husband and i thought it’s worth sharing. This is the pledge in her own words…

Dear future hubby…

Marriage is not easy but ours will be worthwhile in every way… We will not be perfect but be sure we will be very happy in every way we can… I will love you everyday and find reasons to always fight for us.

Loyal and faithful

I will give you loyalty and faithfulness you’ll never question it in anyway…
I will respect and submit to you for i know you’ll always make me part of the team.
I will be a good cook for you… I will never miss to cook for you even when i am tired as hell… I will be creative and always make sure the meals will never be boring… Be ready for breakfasts in bed even on weekdays, midnight snacks at the balcony and lunch picnic dates with homemade food.

Spicy

I will never let the bedroom matters get boring for i know it will just be you and I… The lingerie, the dancing… It won’t be at the bed only and I will always keep my body in shape just for you and be sexy always…

Elegance

I will always keep our house in order and make it to be a place where will always be running to after a hard days… I will put my few interior design skills to make our home elegant. I will invest my money to contribute in our growth of our home in any way i can swty. 

Our Empire 

I will want to grow wealth with you and it will never matter to me who brings more money in the house… You are my man what is important is how you’ll lead our family… I will hustle with you and make that ’empire’ together.

I will trust your decisions and never question your intentions for me and our family…

To be continued tomorrow…

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