Kenya Power seeks alternative revenue channels to shore up profits
Lewis Njoka @LewisNjoka
Kenya Power (KP) is banking on commercialising its garage and leasing out land to shore up its finances after a 92 per cent dip in profits sent the electricity distributor back to the drawing board.
The company says it will liaise with insurers to repair vehicles in its garage, which are currently idle, as a way to diversify revenue streams and support electricity sales.
It will also lease out parcels of land it owns across the country including Nairobi, Mombasa, Nakuru, Eldoret and Nyeri which it intends to lease out.
“The garage sits on huge land and we will liaise with insurers to give us an opportunity to repair the vehicles. Going by the growing numbers of vehicles on roads, it is a potential business,” said KP managing director Bernard Ngugi.
The garage business will be handled by its subsidiary, Kenya Power International.
KP has also been looking to grow its fibre network business as part of its revenue diversification efforts.
Last year, the utility company requested to increase electricity prices by 20 per cent, but the request is yet to be approved by the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority.
KP profit after tax for the year ended June 2019 shrank to Sh262 million down from Sh3.27 billion recorded the previous year.
The company attributed the dip to a Sh18 billion increase in non-fuel power purchase costs and additional losses related to short term borrowing and foreign exchange.
