of goodwills ...

it was when i was class six that the govt of nyayo introduced the business education as a subject in primary school. it was an elitist subject which you could only take once u reach class six. later the govt trashed the subject for unkown reasons. anyway, that was when i heard of the word 'good will' or are they two words. the likeable teacher explained good will as the value of a business entity not directly attributable to its tangible assets and liabilities but which derives from factors such as consumer loyalty to the brand. i always knew good will to be just that. it was until i went to nakuru that i discovered that good will was not only that and could also be paid for houses. in fact it was being paid for munispal council houses. the houses in kabatia II also called section 58 are on an almost 1/8 acre piece yet the rent is only 1300,(most tenants keep upto 4 dairy cows in the compound) the rent has been that way for as long as i can remember. needless to say those houses which are very near the road (or on tarmac as nairobians are wont to say) and also very near town are hot cakes in nakuru. everyone wants to live there. the last time i was there, to get the houses, you had to part with 50,000 /= 'good will' payable to the incumbent before you go to the council offices. however nakurians did not mind that figure and there was always a very long line of pple willing to pay that amount. but that was almost 7 years ago. right now the same 'good will' is going for between 250,000 for a one bedroom house to 300,000 for the 2 bedroom ones. and they are not available! you wonder why the council allows that kind of business.

but elsewhere in nairobi, instead of creating 'good will', businesses continue to confound me with their customer service or lack of it thereof. one service which the city council has failed to provide is public toilets and in the late '90s it was the most lucrative business venture. many pay per use cubicles poped up. i always found it ridiculous. but they not only did well but were fast copied all over the country. the most confounding to me was the one at the Holy Family basilica, talk of milking faithfuls, after tithe, and offering, the poor faithfuls have to cough 5/= each time they have haja ndogo and 10/= for the other one. however last week i got a shock of my life when i saw at nakumatt lifeftyle (..NAKUMATT of all the people!) had placed a young girl just outside the loos to collect 10/= per entry. so where does customer service start and where does it end. isnt it these small conviniences that help bring the human traffice that businesses crave for? at unga house in westlands, i heard the business owners are complaining that human traffic is not good and are therefore thinking of vacating the premises en mass. elsewhere, others are trying to stem the flow. unspeakable

ok away from matters loo to matters oooh! just as expected, sameer seems to have annouced an abominable result to which the market has responded by lowering the share price of the tyre manufacture to a low of 12 bob down from a high of 38 posted just 2 months ago. in fact at that time it was expected to 'head north' to the land of cables and city trust! i have not been able to download the results from nse website though. and the sameer website also dont have then. NSE has only posted the icon for the results and not the results themselves.

odegle tip of the day ...ever heard of a ponzi scheme? its probably the easiest way to make money from fools!