The minimum interest rate that will paid to investors who participated in this week's treasury bill auction has settled at 2.1 %. This represents a slight dip from the rate of 2.2% registered during the last auction two weeks ago.

According to the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK), the government has accepted KES 6.4 billion worth of bids from this week's T-bill auction. This represents an oversubscription of 82% compared with the KES 3.5 billion that the government has targeted. The CBK says it will next week offer 182-day treasury bills worth KES 6.5 billion.

The minimum investment that one can invest in the next T-bills offer is KES 100,000.

Listed fuel marketer KenolKobil will remain barred from importing crude oil, because a court injunction restraining the industry regulator from imposing a ban came too late, the sector's regulator said on Thursday. Speaking to Reuters, Kaburu Mwirichia, the Director General of the Energy Regulatory Commission has said the firm will stay banned from importing petrol, diesel, kerosene or jet fuel. 

KenolKobil secured an injunction restraining the regulator from withdrawing its import license last Friday. Mr Mwirichia however said that the court order came too late to be effective, arriving two days after the end of a statutory period of notice that the licence would be revoked. The firm, which operates in seven African countries, is locked in an increasingly bitter dispute with the government and the Energy Regulatory Commission over fees charged at a refinery in Mombasa. 

KenolKobil has rejected the regulator's view, saying the commission will be in contempt of court if it interferes with the firm's business. The firm maintains that it remains the dominant player in the petroleum industry, as it supplies at least a quarter of the Kenyan market. Notably, pump prices have been rising in recent weeks in East Africa's biggest economy, despite subdued global oil prices, with Kenol Kobil having been the first oil dealer to hike its fuel prices.

A study by the government has shown that 80% of the country's households uses kerosene as their primary source of energy. In a study commissioned by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), charcoal and firewood also command the highest amount of spending on energy among the country's households.

In a study that is bound to confound the country's energy policy makers, it is now emerging that 80% of Kenyans prefer to use kerosene as their primary source of fuel. Charcoal, fire wood, electricity and liquified petroleum gas follow paraffin in descending order of preference among Kenyan households. It has all got to do with the affordability of each source of energy. Because 80 % of the people can not afford anything better, they use most of their income to sustain themselves.

Also emerging from the study is the fact that connection to electricity remains low. The study by the Kenya Institute of Public Policy Research and Analysis (KIPPRA) puts the national connection rate at 29%. Nairobi recorded the highest connection rate of 54 % of total households. Central province came second with 42.4% while western and north eastern provinces had the lowest connection rates of 14.5 and 14.7 % respectively. 

The uneven pace at which the country's population is accessing electric power has a lot to do with its high cost of installation. Simultaneously what we give to the formal sector, must be given to the informal sector. The study now recommends that the government must now begin to encourage better usage of fuel based energy sources. This is considering that charcoal and firewood both account for highest share of the household budget for energy in both urban and rural areas.

We also would like to see the policies have more ingredients on biomass so as to see how can we improve on the sustainable utilization of biomass. Encourage people to grow wood in their areas and then use it sustainably. As the government considers the findings of this report, much more needs to be done to step up the distribution of electric power to households that still remain in the dark.

The Kenya Investment Authority will invite and host Kenyans living in the United States of America, to an investment conference next month. At least 3,000 Kenyans living in the US, Canada, and South America are expected to attend the Kenya Diaspora Investment Conference.

The conference, which is the second such meeting to be convened since 2007, coincides with the implementation of the new Constitution, that now guarantees dual citizenship rights to Kenyans living abroad. The estimated 2 million Kenyans that live abroad have been a valuable resource to Kenya's economy, having contributed billions of Kenyan shillings in remittances to the country.

Statistics availed by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) show that  by end of last year, Kenya has received KES 50 billion in annual remittances from them, an amount that is almost double what was received in 2004. It is now expected that this figure could rise, with the advent of a new constitutional order, that will enable Kenyans in the diaspora to gain dual citizenship.

Considering that at least half of all remittances sent into the country originate from North America, the Kenya Investment Authority has organised a conference next month to sensitize Kenyans living in that region to investment opportunities available back home.

The meeting, whose theme is "Tap Into Wealth", will be held in Boston, Massachusetts, between the 14th and the 17th of next month.

The sectors that will be presented as viable investment opportunities at that conference include business process outsourcing, the capital markets, real estate, and information technology enabled services. Local companies ranging from financial institutions to real estate developers are scheduled to attend the conference.

The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister For Finance, Uhuru Kenyatta is also expected to head the Kenyan delegation that will attend the conference.