Buzzwords don’t make a company sound smart. They slow meetings, blur decisions and drive away customers and staff. Here is how to spot the four strains of jargon monoxide, and how to clear the air.
By Michael Okwiri - 𝑮𝒖𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝑪𝒐𝒍𝒖𝒎𝒏𝒊𝒔𝒕 · Africa Business Stories · 4 min read · 13 October 2026
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The journey from an idea to a functioning business is less about polished strategy than survival, improvisation and learning which mistakes can kill the company before it develops scale. Ian Ortega argues that capital can sometimes postpone rather than remove that apprenticeship, while founders who bootstrap their way from zero to one learn the suppliers, customers, hidden costs and informal rules that no business-school framework can fully teach.
Africa Business Stories · 6 min read
Kenyan firms face headline tax rates broadly in line with regional peers, yet frequent rule changes, overlapping levies, short compliance deadlines and VAT refunds that can take 12 to 24 months are making long-term investment harder to price. FINTAK is pushing for a multiyear tax roadmap, longer transition periods and enforceable refund timelines as businesses weigh expansion, hiring and capital spending against rules that can change within months.
Tax & Regulation · 8 min read
PesaLink’s portable payment ID could let Kenyans send money using phone numbers or other familiar identifiers without knowing the recipient’s bank, while lower transfer fees seek to make the rail easier to use. Its rollout also lands as Kenya debates a national instant-payment switch, raising a bigger question over whether PesaLink can evolve from bank infrastructure into part of a broader payments system, and under whose rules.
Payments · 7 min read
Conversations with the people designing, regulating and operating financial systems
Inside The RailsJoshua Oigara reached his first big career target early, becoming KCB chief executive at 37 after setting himself the goal of leading a blue-chip company before 40. Now running Stanbic Holdings and Standard Bank’s East Africa business, he has set another measurable ambition. He wants Stanbic to break into Kenya’s top three banks by 2027 or 2028, a target that will require converting rapid balance-sheet growth into stronger earnings after first-half 2026 profit rose just 0.8% even as assets expanded 27%.
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