Economy
Sage Launches Sage One Payroll in Kenya
By Dipo Olowookere
Sage, the market and technology leader for integrated accounting, payroll & HR and payment systems has announced that Sage One Payroll will be available in Kenya from April 3.
The cloud solution integrates with Sage One Accounting, offering a complete business solution for start-up and small businesses.
This was announced at the recent Sage Summit Tour for Africa & Middle East that took place in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Sage One Payroll is a smart online payroll solution that can be accessed 24/7 that caters for local tax and legal requirements. It allows unlimited earnings (owed to employees) and deductions (what the employee owes).
The software automatically calculates all statutory amounts – income tax, National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF), National Social Security Fund (NSSF) and any other payroll related costs – to leave employers with the correct net salary for each employee.
For as little as Ksh100 per employee per month, Sage One Payroll streamlines the capturing of transactions, automates payroll calculations and brings visibility to the business.
It also makes it simpler to keep track of annual changes to tax regulations that impact on payroll tax calculations and various changes in legislation.
“Because Sage One Payroll is online, business owners or managers can simply login from wherever they are and start working,” says Nikki Summers (goo.gl/L2qAd8), Director for Sage One in East and West Africa. “The ability to file statutory returns, automatically update the payroll general ledger in Sage One Accounting and produce professional electronic payslips with a click of a button is a major timesaver.”
Sage One Payroll is a smart online payroll solution that can be accessed 24/7 that caters for local tax and legal requirements and with easy-to-use templates and no payroll jargon, the solution allows employers to simply sign up, add employees and start processing within 5 minutes.
Organisations can access data from the cloud which means that their data is available online, anywhere, anytime. All they need is an internet connection and with Sage One Payroll, payroll legislation is taken care of. Employers can comply with the Kenya Revenue Authority requirements and generate tax certificates in one simple step.
The pricing plan, based on different brackets of employee count, won’t break the bank. Companies can pay per month or per year.
“The discipline a good payroll solution offers to the business also comes with other benefits”, adds Summers. “Payroll fraud is a major risk, especially for smaller businesses, and incorrect payments can cost dearly. Payroll software delivers better visibility into transactions, provides an audit trail, reconciles input and output and offers a set of controls, checks and balances that help to prevent errors and fraud.”
Concludes Summers: “Business builders and entrepreneurs don’t go into business to manage admin and red tape. Our vision is to make those tasks invisible by 2020 by automating the back-office functions so that they can focus on business strategy and more creative tasks that will enable them to follow their dreams.”
Mediabox Advertising Limited, which specialises in outdoor advertising, print management, corporate branding and signage, creative design and promotional items, uses the Sage One Accounting solution and will use the payroll software. “We’re so excited about Sage One Payroll. It will save us a great deal of time as we manage the payroll,” says founder, Martin Kibote.
“We can easily comply with our tax obligations and print out professional payslips with a push of a button. Plus, the integration between Sage One Accounting and Sage One Payroll means that we don’t need to manually recapture payroll data in our accounting system.”
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Senate has passed a bill to repeal and re-enact the law establishing the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), paving the way for the regulatory agency to be renamed the Insurance Regulatory Commission (IRC).
The legislation, titled the Insurance Regulatory Commission (Establishment) Bill, 2026, was passed after the Senate considered and adopted the report of its committee on banking, insurance and other financial institutions.
The Chairman of the committee, Mr Adetokunbo Abiru, the senator representing Lagos East, who presented the report, stated that the proposed legislation was necessary because the existing National Insurance Commission Act of 1997 had become outdated and no longer reflected the realities of Nigeria’s evolving insurance industry or global regulatory standards.
According to the Senate, the decision to change the Commission’s name was informed by the need to eliminate confusion associated with the existing designation and to better reflect the institution’s regulatory mandate within Nigeria’s insurance industry.
The bill also provides legal protection for the commission and its officers against adverse claims arising from the lawful execution of their statutory duties.
However, he noted that the commission’s enabling law had become obsolete, exposing significant regulatory gaps that required urgent legislative intervention.
‘The current National Insurance Commission Act 1997 is outdated and does not adequately address the emerging economic growth, needs and development of the insurance business,” the lawmaker said.
He explained that the new legislation seeks to strengthen the independence of the commission by empowering it to make regulatory decisions without undue influence in the country’s insurance sector.
According to him, the bill also enhances the commission’s authority to exchange information and collaborate with domestic and international regulatory bodies, issue regulations, guidelines, standards and directives on insurance-related matters, and intervene more effectively in financially distressed insurance companies to protect policyholders and preserve financial stability.
This marks yet another move to strengthen the country’s insurance sector following the enactment of the Nigerian Insurance Industry Reform Act (NIIRA) of 2025 and the industry-wide recapitalisation exercise, which will wrap up by July 31.
By Adedapo Adesanya
About 143 companies that successfully passed the technical and prequalification stages of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission’s (NUPRC) 2025 Licensing Round will, today, compete for 50 oil and gas blocks at the commercial bid conference in Abuja, the final stage in the allocation process for the assets.
The commission said only the prequalified companies have been invited to attend the event, which will hold at the Conference Centre of the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja, stressing that participation is strictly by invitation.
The commercial bid conference will determine the successful bidders for oil and gas assets located across Nigeria’s producing and frontier basins.
The 50 blocks comprise 16 onshore blocks and 18 shallow water blocks in the Niger Delta, one deep offshore block, three onshore blocks in the Benin Basin, four in the Anambra Basin, four in the Chad Basin, and four in the Benue Trough.
According to the commission, the winning bids will be determined through a transparent evaluation process based on clearly defined commercial parameters. These include the signature bonus offered by bidders, the proposed work programme commitment and the level of performance security provided. The final selection will be based on a weighted technical and commercial score.
The licensing round is being conducted under the provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021, which requires a transparent and competitive process for the award of petroleum assets.
NUPRC had announced the commencement of the 2025 Licensing Round on November 11, 2025, before opening the online bid portal on December 1, 2025, to enable interested companies to register and participate in the exercise.
To ensure prospective investors fully understood the requirements, the commission organised a pre-bid conference on January 14, 2026, at Eko Hotels and Suites, Lagos. The event provided detailed explanations on the licensing guidelines and bidding procedures to registered participants and other stakeholders.
Registration and submission of prequalification documents closed on February 27, 2026, while the prequalification evaluation was completed on March 16, 2026.
NUPRC disclosed that 286 companies initially submitted applications for prequalification.
Following the evaluation process, 196 companies were cleared to participate in the technical and commercial bid stages.
The prequalified 143 companies eventually submitted a total of 200 bids for the available oil and gas blocks. These companies are now set to compete at the commercial bid conference, where the financial offers will be opened and evaluated to determine the eventual winners.
The licensing round is expected to attract fresh investment into Nigeria’s upstream petroleum sector, boost exploration activities across both producing and frontier basins, increase crude oil and gas reserves, and support the country’s drive to grow production and government revenue.
It also underscores the regulator’s commitment to implementing a transparent, competitive and investor-friendly licensing regime under the Petroleum Industry Act.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has retained all key monetary policy parameters following the conclusion of its two-day meeting on July 21, 2026, on Tuesday, maintaining its tight monetary policy stance to curb inflation and support macroeconomic stability.
According to the Governor of the apex bank, Mr Yemi Cardoso, who chaired the committee, the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR), which serves as the benchmark interest rate, remains at 26.50 per cent. The MPC also retained the asymmetric corridor around the MPR at +50 basis points and -450 basis points.
In addition, the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) for commercial banks was left unchanged at 45.00 per cent, while the CRR for merchant banks remains at 16.00 per cent. The committee also retained the CRR on non-Treasury Single Account (Non-TSA) public sector deposits at 75.00 per cent, with the liquidity ratio at 30.00 per cent.
The decision reflects the apex bank’s continued commitment to containing inflationary pressures through a restrictive monetary policy while safeguarding the resilience of Nigeria’s financial system amid ongoing macroeconomic adjustments.
By keeping all policy tools unchanged, the MPC signalled its intention to continue managing excess liquidity in the banking sector and maintain stability in financial markets.
The move is also expected to provide greater policy certainty for investors and businesses monitoring the country’s monetary policy direction.
The latest decision also means borrowing costs are likely to remain elevated in the near term as the central bank continues to prioritise price stability over monetary easing.
Analysts had expected the CBN committee to retain the rate after Nigeria’s headline inflation came in at 15.91 per cent as of June 2026, marking a slight decline from 15.93 per cent in May.
However, even as overall price growth has moderated significantly compared to previous periods, food inflation remains a persistent challenge, accelerating to 17.52 per cent in June.
