Kahawa Tungu
Imagine a credit reference bureau being blacklisted? Well, this is the reality that Metropol Credit Reference Bureau Limited is staring at if they don’t put their house in order in the shortest time possible.
According to reports, Metropol, an information and credit management company, has defaulted on several bank loans and is just staring at being wound up.
Some of the austerity measures that the company, which began its operations in 1996, has reportedly been forced to take is asking their employees to take a 50 per cent pay cut.
Last week, the company’s Human Resouce Manager, Finance Manager and Operations Officer (COO) went round the company’s department alerting the staff on the new changes.
However, many of the staff expressed their disappointment leaving the officers with no option but to leave the matter to Sam Omukoko, the Group’s Managing Director, who is said to have been out of the country.
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The crisis has largely been attributed to poor investment decisions regarding the company’s TV station, Metropol TV.
Metropol TV is a business news channel with a programming mix spanning news, features, talk shows and analysis of business trends. It also focuses on investment opportunities across the country and East Africa.
Word has it that the company can no longer support the TV.
The MD is said to have spent a lot of money hiring TV personalities like former Citizen TV news anchor Terryanne Chebet, Gikonyo Macharia as head of broadcast and commercials and Mr Stephen Kimani as the managing editor.
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Before taking the role of the station’s General Manager, Terryanne worked at Fanaka TV.
After hiring Terryanne, Omukoko looked forward to striking a partnership deal with American business channel CNBC but that has not been achieved to date.
The company went ahead to pay rent for a whole 12th floor at KCB towers for 2 years without occupying it as they waited for MTV to pick up.
Despite the crisis, Omukoko continues to disregard advice from board members to shut down the station.
The company is also said to have lost Ksh12 million to Ukrainians, who were contracted to build a data terminal. Despite receiving the payment the contractor has not delivered.
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It has now sought the services of Njoroge Regeru and Company Advocates in a bid to recover the money.
As debts continue to bite, the company’s medical scheme has been cancelled, the corporate account for Little cabs has been cancelled paralyzing the movement of the TV crew.
The Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) towers management has threatened to shut down power for non-payment of rent at the MTV studios.
Seeing that the company might collapse anytime, Standard group has also threatened to start bankruptcy proceedings against Metropol in a bid to recover funds owed to them.
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