This archive report was first published on 2 January 2020.
Kenya's Top CEOs Set Ambitious Plans for 2020 Despite Slow Economy ¶
As the year 2020 begins, captains of industry across sectors are expressing optimism that the new year will bring good tidings. Despite the slow economy, Kenya's top CEOs are setting ambitious plans to drive growth and profitability in their respective industries.
According to various CEOs, the year 2019 was a difficult year for business, with a number of listed companies issuing profit warnings. However, with the economy struggling and credit to the private sector trickling back, optimism is understandable.
From the financial services industry to manufacturing, retail, and medical sectors, business leaders project a great year, where earnings will grow, boosting profitability. This is expected to spawn business expansions both locally and into international markets.
Here are the views of six CEOs running leading businesses in their respective industries:
1. Nasim Devji, DTB CEO and MD ¶
DTB has a rich tradition of supporting the SME sector in Kenya for several decades. In 2020, we shall be rededicating our commitment to support the growth of these businesses through our products and innovative digital channels.
Our aim is to enable SMEs to grow, thereby spurring economic growth in the country.
2. Dan Githua, Group CEO, Tusker Mattresses ¶
The year 2019 brought to us at Tuskys, Lemoc, and Mavazi a mixed bag of fortunes literally. Our top-line growth remained subdued due to the overall economic climate, which has a ripple effect on the retail industry.
However, we have managed to grow on many other areas while strengthening our foundation significantly.
3. Ronald Ndegwa, Managing Director Savannah Cement ¶
The year 2019 has been relatively difficult with depressed building and construction prospects. However, the year 2020 appears very bright for Savannah Cement particularly due to the recent lifting of the interest rates ceiling and government interventions for affordable housing efforts.
We expect local banks to begin flowing finance to various building and construction projects which had either stalled or were due for ground-breaking.
4. Dr Patrick Tumbo, Group CEO Sanlam Kenya ¶
The year 2019 has provided much-needed corporate stability for Sanlam Kenya which has also returned to profitability. The corporate recovery strategy (focused on cost containment and aggressive revenue growth) we adopted within the year, has continued to bear fruits.
We expect some level of accelerated growth in the year 2020 from our insurance (general and life) businesses.
5. Marseille Onyango, Janssen Kenya Country Manager ¶
The year 2019 has been very successful for Janssen, which is one of the pharmaceutical companies of Johnson & Johnson globally. Locally, we successfully managed to launch specialist pharmaceutical products that provide much-needed relief for prostate cancer patients.
We also managed to expand partnerships with critical stakeholders in the rollout of oncological nursing training programmes.
6. Jane Karuku, Managing Director, Kenya Breweries Ltd ¶
The year 2020 will be a period of more growth for us at Kenya Breweries Limited as we are commissioning more brewing vessels into the Kisumu Brewery.
This continues the investment we started in Kisumu in 2017, forging ahead even as the country went through a lengthy electioneering period.
