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Regional leasing firm, Vehicle and Equipment Leasing Limited (VAELL) has tapped Ms. Bertha Mvati from Zohari Leasing Limited, a subsidiary of Centum Investment Limited as the new Managing Director for Kenya. Ms. Mvati is expected to undertake commercial and operational roles. She brings over 10 years of leasing experience. Prior to her appointment, she was the Business Manager at Zohari Leasing Limited overseeing the company’s operations and strategy implementation. 

She joins at a time when the lessor is set to launch new products in the market targeting the end consumer. VAELL is launching new products for the mass market to compliment the current products that targets mainly the corporate clientele. The new products are expected to boost the growth of the small business segment. This includes a massive US $ 5 Million investment in TingA, their flagship agriculture leasing brand. Ms. Mvati will be a focal point in the Kenyan market in commercializing leasing as well as offering a range of financial solutions for a broad range of clients.

Commenting on her appointment, Ms. Mvati said: “I am looking forward to building on the efforts made by everyone in the company over the past few years, cementing our hard-earned reputation for service quality and working to grow the business from what is now a very sound base.”

Before moving to Centum’s subsidiary, she was a member of VAELL’s senior management where she helped the lessor to emerge with a more consistent approach across all operating regions and a focus on quality of service. In 2014, she contributed to the lessor joining club 101 after being named first runner-up in the Top 100 survey, an initiative of KPMG and Nation Media Group that seeks to identify Kenya’s fastest growing medium-sized companies in order to showcase business excellence and highlight some of the country’s most successful entrepreneurship stories. VAELL has scooped 14 awards in the last 5 years. It first featured in Top 100 KPMG awards in 2012.

https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/corporate/companies/Vaell-picks-Centum-executive-for-top-job/4003102-5020256-2tndpnz/index.html

Jamii Bora Bank has been ordered to pay Vehicle and Equipment Leasing (VAELL) Sh8 million for interest it overcharged the firm on a loan.

In the court ruling documents seen by The Standard, the court established that the lender had overcharged VAELL interest rates of up to 28 per cent – double the 14 per cent set by the law capping interest rate charged by financial institutions.

According to the law, banks can be fined up to Sh. 1 million for charging loans at more than four percentage points above the base rate published by CBK.

VAELL filed the case against Jamii Bora Bank in 2016 after the lender repossessed its assets leased to clients.

The court established that the bank had failed to effect the new provision of the amendment of the Banking Act with respect to the interest rate and overcharged VAELL by Sh8.040 million.

The bank was also found to have repossessed the assets VAELL leased to clients while the arrears were less than the excess interest.

Milimani High Court Judge (Commercial and Tax Division) James Makau said the bank misled the court to believe that the rates it charged were as agreed in the agreement and that it was pre-determined, pre-calculated and agreed upon.

This was after the court asked the Jamii to supply VAELL with a statement of accounts showing the interest rates the bank had charged the firm since September 14, 2014.

“It was after the supply of the statements and subsequent reconciliation that it became apparent to the plaintiff that the bank had misled the court that the interest rates had been pre-calculated and that the bank had been verifying the interest rates and based on that discovery, the applicant preferred this application review.”

The court ruled that the bank unlawfully attached VAELL’s assets and ordered it to return them.

Justice Makau also ordered the bank to apply the lawful lending rate of 14 per cent on all the loan facilities that VAELL had with the bank.

https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2001309478/bank-ordered-to-pay-vaell-sh8m