The Family Group Foundation has signed a strategic partnership with the Military Wives Association of Kenya to formally institutionalise technical and vocational skills training within the Kenya Defence Forces, marking a significant step toward scaling youth empowerment and economic inclusion among military families.

The programme has so far benefitted 290 dependents, aged 18 to 25 years, of service personnel in the Kenya Defence Forces, with the goal of enhancing their employability and entrepreneurial opportunities.

Speaking during the fourth cohort graduation of 89 dependents of Kenya Army servicemen and women, held at Embakasi Garrison, Chief of Defence Forces General Charles Kahariri commended the programme's impact in equipping young people with marketable skills. "I would like to appreciate the strong partnership of the Military Wives Association of Kenya and The Family Group Foundation. This is indeed a truly great creation that has equipped these young men and women with not only technical skills but has also instilled in them confidence," he said.

The partnership has now successfully graduated four cohorts, bringing the total number of beneficiaries to 290. The first cohort saw 51 graduates from Kenya Army dependents, the second cohort saw 50 graduates from Kenya Air Force dependents, while the third cohort included 100 graduates from Kenya Navy dependents.

Family Bank CEO Nancy Njau said the initiative reflects the lender's broader commitment to positive social impact and youth opportunity. "At Family Bank, we believe in promoting positive social impact. This partnership represents our commitment to strengthening communities and creating opportunities for our young people. By formalising our partnership with the Military Wives Association, we look forward to empowering the next generation through education, skills development, and mentorship, ensuring that every young person has the tools to succeed and contribute meaningfully to society," she said.

Since graduation, beneficiaries of the programme have made a notable impact in the job market, transitioning into the Kenya Defence Forces as skilled tradesmen, moving into employment, and establishing their own businesses.

Military Wives Association of Kenya Chairlady Grace Kahariri said the collaboration is helping young people build resilience and practical pathways into the future. "Through our partnership with The Family Group Foundation, these students have been equipped with essential skills to navigate the complexities of modern life and build a more resilient future. This joint effort strengthens our mission to empower and uplift young talent," she said.

Beyond entrepreneurship, the partnership will also look to support high school scholarship programmes, psychosocial support initiatives, and climate action efforts, including environmental conservation and ecosystem restoration, in line with the shared vision of both organisations to drive inclusive socio-economic development.

Kenya's telecommunications sector is entering a phase of maturity, with overall mobile subscriptions showing only marginal growth as usage patterns evolve rapidly. According to the latest Communications Authority of Kenya Q2 2025/26 report, total mobile SIM subscriptions stood at 78.4 million, a 0.1 per cent increase from the 78.3 million recorded in Q1 2025/26.

Despite the slow growth in subscriber numbers, activity remains strong, particularly in mobile money and data services. Mobile money subscriptions grew by 5.6 per cent to 51.36 million, signalling continued expansion in digital financial services. While Safaricom retains a dominant position with about 89 per cent market share, other players are gradually increasing their footprint. Airtel Money Kenya's market share rose from 10.3 per cent in Q1 to 11.0 per cent in Q2, pointing to early competitive shifts within a highly concentrated market.

Voice services, meanwhile, continue to play an important role. Industry trends indicate stable to moderate growth in traffic, driven by increased cross-network communication. Airtel Kenya recorded 11.83 billion minutes of voice traffic in Q2, up from 11.55 billion in Q1, representing a 2.4 per cent increase. Notably, off-net traffic grew by 8.4 per cent, suggesting rising cross-network engagement and strengthening relevance beyond its own subscriber base.

Usage patterns also highlight the role of pricing and perceived value. Average call durations remained higher across networks, with Airtel users averaging about 2.7 minutes per call, compared with shorter durations of about 1.6 minutes on Safaricom. This points to affordability as a key factor shaping access and influencing how consumers use voice services.

Mobile data subscriptions increased by 2.9 per cent, broadband connections rose by 9.3 per cent, and overall data consumption grew by 12 per cent during the quarter. This growth is closely linked to a 9.1 per cent increase in smartphone adoption, alongside a decline in feature phone usage, reinforcing the transition toward more data-driven digital ecosystems.

At the same time, SMS usage continues to decline across the sector. Airtel Kenya recorded a 7.1 per cent drop in SMS volumes during the quarter, compared with an overall market decline of 2.6 per cent, including trends observed on Safaricom and other operators. This reflects a structural shift toward internet-based messaging platforms rather than any reduction in overall communication.

Safaricom continues to lead across key segments, including subscriptions and mobile money, though its growth is relatively slower in certain areas compared with emerging competitors. Airtel Kenya, with a market share slightly above 30 per cent, continues to strengthen its position through pricing and usage-led strategies. Other operators such as Telkom Kenya and Jamii Telecommunications remain niche players in the mobile segment, while new entrants like Starlink are beginning to reshape the conversation around connectivity, especially in underserved regions.

The latest CA report suggests that growth in Kenya's telecom sector is no longer defined by subscriber acquisition alone but is increasingly driven by how effectively operators deepen engagement, expand financial services, and support evolving digital lifestyles.

As the market continues to mature, the competitive edge will lie in delivering value, improving accessibility, and building ecosystems that integrate seamlessly into everyday life. Shifts in mobile money adoption, data usage, and cross-network engagement offer a clear indication of where the sector is headed.

TAAG Angola Airlines has successfully operated its first commercial passenger flight to Abidjan in the Republic of Cote d'Ivoire, marking a major milestone in the carrier's strategy to expand its destination network and deepen regional air connectivity across Africa.

The inaugural flight landed at Felix Houphouet-Boigny International Airport on April 6, officially opening the new Luanda-Abidjan route. The service will run three times a week on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, mainly using the Airbus A220-300, a 137-seat aircraft designed for efficient and comfortable regional operations.

The new route forms a core part of TAAG's wider expansion drive into key African markets. It also reinforces Angola's Dr. Antonio Agostinho Neto International Airport (NBJ) as a growing regional hub and a strategic gateway linking Africa with South America and Europe.

Beyond passenger transport, the route is also expected to support air cargo growth between Angola and Cote d'Ivoire, helping move agricultural products, manufactured goods, and perishables more quickly between the two countries and strengthening trade flows.

A symbolic ceremony at Felix Houphouet-Boigny International Airport brought together officials from Angola and Cote d'Ivoire as well as civil aviation stakeholders from both countries. Participants described the new service as a practical step toward stronger regional integration, deeper economic cooperation, and more connected African aviation networks.

Bamburi Cement Plc, a leading cement and concrete solutions provider in East Africa, has announced the appointment of Mr. Geoffrey Ndugwa as its new Chief Executive Officer, effective April 1, 2026. He takes over from outgoing CEO Mr. Mohit Kapoor, who successfully concludes his tenure with the company.

Mr. Ndugwa is a seasoned executive with over two decades of experience across sub-Saharan Africa, having held multiple strategic roles within the Holcim Group. Most recently, he served as Mergers and Acquisitions Projects Director for the Holcim Group MEA Region and previously as CEO of Lafarge South Africa.

Confirming the appointment, Bamburi Cement Board Chairman Dr. John Simba praised Mr. Ndugwa as a transformative leader known for driving sustainable profitability and establishing strong governance frameworks. "The Board is delighted to welcome Mr. Ndugwa. He is a seasoned business leader who has successfully held several strategic roles across the continent, delivering excellent corporate results," said Dr. Simba. He also extended sincere gratitude to Mr. Mohit Kapoor for his leadership in stabilizing the business during a critical transition phase.

Mr. Ndugwa holds an MBA from Edinburgh Business School (Heriot-Watt University, UK), a B.Eng. (Hons) in Civil Engineering from the University of East London, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing from the UK Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), where he is also a Chartered Marketer.

He began his career as a Structural Engineer before joining Lafarge in Uganda in 2001. His leadership journey includes serving as General Manager of Marketing, Innovation & Corporate Sales at Lafarge Cement WAPCO Nigeria Plc, Commercial Director for Bamburi Cement Ltd, Country CEO of Lafarge in Malawi, and most recently, Country CEO of Lafarge Cement Zimbabwe.

In recent months, Bamburi Cement, a member of the Ammons Group has reinforced its strategic ambition to secure long-term clinker self-sufficiency, enhance production capacity, and support national infrastructure demands.

Late last year, the company signed a US $250 million (Kshs 32 billion) Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) contract with Sinoma CBMi Construction Co., Ltd for a turnkey clinkerisation factory in Matuga, Kwale County. The state-of-the-art plant will have an annual capacity of 1.6 million tonnes and incorporate advanced, carbon-neutral technologies.

Upon completion, Bamburi Cement aims to more than double its clinker production from 1 million to 2.6 million tonnes, and cement production from 1.8 million to 4 million tonnes annually, underscoring the scale of the mandate Ndugwa is taking on as he assumes leadership of the company.

Global technology company Zoho reported impressive 39% year-over-year revenue growth in Kenya for 2024, driven by surging demand for scalable, unified solutions and substantial local investment. The announcement, made during the Zoholics Kenya user conference in Nairobi, coincided with the launch of a significant expansion to Zoho's AI capabilities, headlined by its proprietary large language model, Zia LLM.

Zoho's sustained commitment to Kenya is evident in its 25% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the past three years. In 2024 alone, the company expanded its local partner network by 83% and grew its Kenyan workforce by 72%. Key products fueling adoption include Zoho One, Workplace, CRM Plus, Books, and Zoho Desk, serving vital sectors like IT services, financial services, manufacturing, and telecommunications.

Central to Zoho's AI strategy is the launch of Zia LLM, a fully in-house developed large language model built on NVIDIA's accelerated computing platform. Designed specifically for business use cases with privacy and governance as core tenets, Zia LLM offers three model sizes: 1.3B, 2.6B, and 7B parameters optimized for tasks like data extraction, summarization, RAG, and code generation. Crucially, Zia LLM allows customers to leverage advanced AI while keeping their data securely on Zoho's servers, avoiding transmission to external cloud providers, a key differentiator that also reduces inference costs. The model is currently in internal testing across Zoho's app portfolio and will be available to customers soon, with plans to scale model sizes starting late 2025.

Complementing Zia LLM, Zoho unveiled a comprehensive suite to democratize AI agent creation and deployment. Over 25 pre-built, context-aware agents are now embedded directly within Zoho products. Examples include a Customer Service Agent for Zoho Desk that processes and triages requests; Ask Zia, the platform-wide assistant now enhanced with BI skills for data professionals; a Candidate Screener; a Deal Analyser; and a Revenue Growth Specialist. The Zia Agent Studio provides a significantly simplified, primarily prompt-based, with a low-code option, no-code builder, enabling users to create agents leveraging over 700 pre-built actions. These agents can be deployed autonomously or triggered in various ways, and can even be provisioned as "digital employees" adhering to organizational permissions. A Zia Agents Marketplace serves as a hub for deploying these agents, with plans to soon allow partners and developers to contribute.

Further enabling this ecosystem is the Model Context Protocol (MCP), now in early access, which allows secure interaction with workflows across 15+ Zoho apps, extendable to third-party tools via Zoho Flow. Zoho also launched proprietary Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) models for English and Hindi, boasting up to 75% better performance than competitors at low computational load, with more languages planned. Future developments include adding finance and support skills to Ask Zia and implementing an Agent2Agent (A2A) protocol for cross-platform collaboration.

Executives emphasized Zoho's unique approach. Veerakumar Natarajan, Country Head for Zoho Kenya, stated, "Our differentiation comes from offering agents over our low code platform so that there is a human in the loop for verification and modification, co-creation with the AI agent. It's simpler to verify output via UI than code." Premanand Velumani, Associate Director, Strategic Growth Zoho MEA, added, "Zia LLM is trained for business, keeping privacy and governance core. This lowers costs, passing value to customers, while ensuring productive AI use. Developing entirely in-house gives us strict data control for key markets like Kenya."

Zoho's announcements underscore a major push to deliver powerful, context-aware, and privacy-centric AI tools integrated directly into business operations, particularly for growing markets.

Family Bank Group Profit After Tax surged by 55.4% from KES 3.5 billion to KES 5.4 billion for the financial year ended 2025, while Profit Before Tax rose by 61.6% to KES 6.3 billion.

The lender said the performance was driven primarily by growth in interest-earning assets and improved income generation, supported by a strengthened balance sheet.

Total assets grew by 23.8% to KES 208.7 billion, helped by a 20% increase in customer deposits and a 46% rise in shareholders' funds, reinforcing the bank's funding base and overall financial position. During the year, the bank raised KES 8 billion in equity capital through a private placement that was oversubscribed by 131%.

Net loans and advances expanded by 14% to KES 105.9 billion, mainly driven by lending to MSMEs, while investment in government securities recorded 45% growth to KES 74 billion.

The rise in interest-earning assets translated into stronger income performance, with net interest income climbing by 46% to KES 15.6 billion and non-interest income posting a 5% increase to KES 4.6 billion.

Family Bank CEO Nancy Njau said 2025 marked the opening chapter of the lender's new five-year strategy, centered on customer propositions and digital transformation. She said the bank continued to invest in digital capabilities and the optimization of its distribution network to improve customer experience and strengthen product offerings for sustainable growth.

Njau added that continued investment in staff through capacity building and an enabling work environment contributed significantly to the bank's strong showing. She said partnerships with Development Finance Institutions also strengthened Family Bank's ability to lend to key sectors such as SMEs, agribusiness, and manufacturing, supporting the expansion of its loan book.

The bank said its liquidity ratio remained well above the statutory requirement at 60.9%, while all capital adequacy ratios stayed comfortably above the regulatory threshold, underlining a strong prudential position alongside the earnings growth.

Airtel Africa and SpaceX have successfully completed the testing of data and messaging services using Starlink Mobile in Kenya, marking a major step toward commercial satellite-to-mobile connectivity across the continent.

The trial focused on areas with no conventional mobile coverage, showing that users carrying standard 4G-compatible smartphones could connect directly through Starlink's satellite network without relying on terrestrial towers.

During the pilot, the service supported practical, everyday digital tasks that matter to both households and businesses. Users were able to place WhatsApp calls, exchange messages through WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, navigate with map services, and complete Airtel app transactions while in remote areas with no normal signal.

Sunil Taldar, Chief Executive Officer of Airtel Africa, said the Kenya tests turned a strategic partnership into visible, field-level results. He said the goal is to make sure Airtel customers remain connected even when they move beyond the reach of existing ground-based networks.

The Kenyan rollout is also serving as a learning ground. Airtel Africa and Starlink Mobile say the technical and operational lessons from the tests will guide expansion plans across Airtel Africa's 14 markets, subject to approvals from regulators in each country.

The companies added that future phases are expected to introduce voice calling and broader data capacity through Starlink Mobile V2 technology, which is designed to deliver stronger broadband-style connectivity directly to ordinary mobile phones.