The eight numbers to know before any Kenyan finance interview

You do not need to know everything about the Kenyan economy. You need to know a small number of things properly, be able to say where you got them, and be able to explain what they mean.

Here are eight. All of them are free to look up, all from primary sources, and the whole exercise takes about twenty minutes.

Do it the morning of the interview, not the week before. These numbers move.

1. The Central Bank Rate — and when it last changed

Where: CBK's MPC press releases.

Know the level, the date of the last decision, and the date of the next meeting. "It's 8.75% and they held it on 11 August; they meet again on 7 October" is a complete answer. "Around eight-something" is not.

2. Inflation — headline and core

Where: KNBS CPI release or CBK's inflation series.

The headline is the entry ticket. The core figure is what marks you out — because it tells you whether the inflation is demand-driven or supply-driven, and therefore whether a rate rise is even the right tool. See inflation isn't "things getting expensive".

3. The target band

5%, plus or minus 2.5. So 2.5% to 7.5%.

Trivially easy to know and startlingly often missed. It is what makes any inflation number mean something — inside the band is a choice, outside the band is a problem.

4. Where the shilling is against the dollar

Where: CBK's indicative rates.

Know roughly where it is and, more importantly, the direction over the last few months and one reason for it. The number alone is memorisation. The reason is analysis. See what the shilling is telling you.

5. The 91-day Treasury bill rate

Where: CBK's auction results.

This is the closest thing Kenya has to a risk-free rate, and it prices everything else. If you are interviewing anywhere near investments, valuation or treasury, not knowing it is a bad look.

6. Private sector credit growth

Where: the MPC press release — it's in there every time.

An underused number that makes you sound like you actually read the source. It tells you whether money is reaching businesses or sitting in government paper.

7. One thing about the company in front of you

Where: their own annual report or investor relations page. Free.

Not their mission statement. One number from their most recent results and one sentence about what it tells you. For a bank: net interest margin, or the NPL ratio. For anyone else: revenue growth and the margin.

This is the single highest-return twenty minutes of preparation available, and most candidates skip it.

8. One thing you have an actual opinion about

Anything. A rate decision, a listing, a regulatory change, a company's results.

You need one topic you can talk about for two minutes with a genuine view, a mechanism and a condition attached. Interviewers ask "what have you been following?" precisely to find out whether you follow anything at all.

What not to do

Don't memorise a hundred figures. You will produce them under pressure in the wrong order and sound like a database.

Don't quote a number you're not sure of. "Around 6.5%, I'd want to check the exact figure" is respected. A confident wrong number is remembered.

Don't skip the company. Macro knowledge with no interest in the specific employer reads as someone applying everywhere.

Then practise saying it

Knowing the numbers is half of it. Getting them out of your mouth in a structure someone can follow is the other half, and it is the half most people never practise. The thirty-second answer covers that.