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• “There’s only one side with me. You get the right side. You get the correct version of the facts.” - Kevin O’Leary • Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower. -- Steve Jobs • “In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield.” - Warren Buffett • ‘‘I just want to be master of my own time. It is ironic that someone in the watch business should not be in control of his own time.’’ - Johann Rupert, South Africa • ‘‘What do you do if you are an executive who resigns? You declare yourself a consultant’’ . Mohammed Ibrahim, Sudan • ‘‘In Life, you don’t get anywhere or do anything you hope to without some sort of sacrifice’’ - Ste. phen Saad, South Africa • ‘‘I think there are a lot of people with family connections but who are actually nowhere. If you are hardworking and determined, you will make it and that’s the bottom line. I don’t believe in an easy way through’’ - Isabel Dos . Santos, Angola • ‘We need to arrest the widening disparities in incomes between the rich and poor’’ - Naushad . Merali, Kenya • ‘‘I own quite a lot and I have worked very hard for it’’ - Sudhir . Ruparelia, Uganda
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DISCLAIMER:
Shame on HELB loan defaulters
I
n the 23rd issue of the CIA magazine, you carried an article on how the Higher Educations Loan Board (HELB) plans to raise the amount of money they allocate to needy students pursuing higher education. I must say that the board’s decision is long overdue and is very much welcome. Each year more and more secondary students qualify to join the university or a college but they don’t have the huge amount of money required to pay these institutions as fees. While some of these young people are strong enough to carry on with life, some of them are so bitter than they drift into drug and alcohol abuse. Worse still, others get into criminal gangs and other immoralities including prostitution. HELB’s plan to increase their balance sheet from Sh33 billion to Sh70 billion is even more commendable. This shows that the number of students receiving
HelB loans will be more than double that of those currently in the beneficiaries list. The board’s biggest challenge is loan defaulters who even after receiving all the help, turn around and vanish into thin air. Kudos to the 62 per cent of the beneficiaries who have refunded what they owe the board. The excuse that one is not in formal employment and therefore cannot pay the loan is lame. Graduates working in the informal sector sometimes even earn more money than those employed by the government or private companies. They should know that with every passing year, a deserving student is denied university or college education because they (the defaulters) ran away with the money. Samuel Njogu, Egerton University.
Telkom Kenya should be denied financial assistance
T
he revelation of the woes facing Telkom Kenya were shocking. It was not so much gratifying to know that the government had spent almost Sh2.5 billion in reconstruction of the company – and then after all that, it failed to bring in a coin. The request for another Sh4.5 billion from the government to fund operations should, of all things, not be granted. From the article titled ‘Telkom Kenya’s last days of glory’ in the last CIA issue, I read that the failed company also needs another Sh2.5 billion to refinance a loan from Kenya Commercial Bank and overdraft facilities and also Sh3.6 billion to
refinance a Standard Chartered Bank Loan. This clearly shows that Telkom is a failed investment and the government of other ways of using tax payers money other than channeling into an abyss. The country is currently in a tough financial balancing equation. Civil servants are demanding better remuneration. With these in mind, I propose that Telkom Kenya should either be fully privatized or laid to rest altogether. Benjamin Muluka, Mombasa.
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