In April 2015, Bidco Africa announced plans to quadruple business volume before 2020, by building new manufacturing factories in Mozambique, Madagascar and Ethiopia in addition to existing operations in Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Uganda.
[19] In line with the company's vision, the move saw Vimal Shah take up the role of Executive Chairman heralding its transition from family-run operation into a professionally managed multinational.
[23] A similar agreement with a local community-based organization – Vision 2030 Youth Entrepreneurship Programme – will ensure that its 10,000 members benefit from Bidco's agribusiness opportunities.
Working in partnership with FAO, Bidco will facilitate Vision 2030 members in Laikipia and Tharaka Nithi counties grow oil seeds and supply to them in an off take agreement.
[25] In March 2019 Bidco Africa partnered with Safaricom and the Makueni County Government to provide a ready market Sunflower farmers to be used as raw material in the processing of edible oils.
[31][32] According to an article in The Guardian in March 2015, Oil Palm Uganda Limited (OPUL) had in 2011 acquired land leases from a Ugandan businessman, Amos Ssempa, with the aim of expanding its plantations.
Mr. Ssempa further said that “They [the farmers] signed that they received the money.” In July 2011 one of the residents, Nakamya, awoke to "find yellow machines churning up her land and razing the crops she had grown in a bid to make way for palm oil plantations.
[36] In February 2018, a mediation process by the dispute resolution office of the World Bank's International Finance Corporation resolved that the farmers would receive a lumpsum, which they would then allocate to each complainant based on a formula devised and agreed to by all parties.
[39] In May, 2016, UNDP visited Kalangala to further investigate the issues surrounding the matter [40] and tabled a report in November 2016 [41] that faulted a decision inviting Bidco into partnership with the United Nations Development Programme's – Business Call to Action – in Uganda.
[42] In 2011 All Africa reported that approximately 3,000 workers went on strike citing poor working conditions, harassment by senior managers and inadequate wages.
In October 2016, the Bidco CEO – Vimal Shah, invited the parliamentary committee chaired by Jude Njomo, the MP for Kiambu Constituency to open an inquiry into the allegations, saying the company is a transparent and socially responsible corporate citizen with nothing to hide.
One of the directors, Mr. Dipak Shah, is on record saying that the company welcomes formal investigations into the allegations by the former employees insisting that Bidco has fully complied with existing labour as well as environmental laws and that all its procedures follow best practices and international standards.
[49] In December 2017, Bidco was recognized for its commitment to keeping workers and workplace safe and healthy by the International Institute of Security and Safety Management (IISSM).
In a case filed at the Kenyan High Court in 2012, Bidco Africa sued the Kenya Revenue Authority, for using the sum insured of an import consignment as the dutiable amount.
[59] In August 2013 a High Court Judge ruled there had been no violation of the company's rights under Articles 47(1) and 48 of the Constitution of Kenya and dismissed the petition challenging the amount.
In November 2016 the Ombudsman, the Commission on Administrative Justice received a complaint against Kenya Revenue Authority for allegedly delaying to collect tax arrears from Bidco Africa as per the 2012 High Court order.
The Ombudsman said the delay in recovering the taxes owed, since the initial demand in September 2009, has been compounded by an "abuse of the judicial process by Bidco".
Contrary to these allegations the article, published in The Star, further reveals that following the dismissal of their petition, Bidco sought temporary stay orders pending an appeal, which was granted.
[61] In 2007, a representative of Renaissance Capital (Russian company) approached Vimal Shah to solicit for the contract to handle Bidco Africa'sInitial public offering.
The article further details some of the tactics employed by the smear campaign which included a damaging 20-part series of blog posts published on Çnyakundi.com,[65] false accusations of money laundering for the Jubilee Party during the 2017 Presidential Election,[66] scripted protests on the streets of London by paid con artists,[67] vicious attacks on social media platforms - including damaging Wikipedia entries by a fake account operating under the alias Joshua Omondi, as well as bribing journalists to publish negatively skewed print and online articles about Vimal Shah and Bidco Africa.