The government has revealed that it will be authorising additional international companies that have shown interest in investing in Kenya, thanks to the positive economic trajectory.
Speaking on Citizen TV, Trade Cabinet Secretary Lee Kinyanjui noted that the move comes as the economy continues to pick up pace, attracting increased interest from international investors seeking to establish a footprint in Kenya.
Kinyanjui highlighted that most of the requests have come from firms in the energy sector, data centres, and business process outsourcing, areas that could create thousands of jobs for Kenyan youth struggling with unemployment.
''The number of international companies from outside Kenya that want to come and set up base here has increased, and we have young, educated people with the right work ethic. The only area we need to do something in is the cost of power; although our power is not the cheapest, it is the greenest,'' Kinyanjui remarked.
According to the CS, discussions are already underway with several multinational firms keen to establish data centres for their global networks in Kenya, banking on the country’s improving infrastructure and reliable internet connectivity.
Meanwhile, Kenya’s tech sector has overtaken banking, manufacturing, and retail as the leading destination for foreign direct investment (FDI), according to government data.
The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) in its 2024 Foreign Investment Survey showed that foreign capital inflows into the tech sector rose 71 per cent to Ksh64.7 billion ($500.9 million) in 2024. The growth made it the single largest recipient of FDI, accounting for more than a quarter of the Ksh242.6 billion ($1.8 billion) total inflows, up from less than 10 per cent in 2020.
AGOA Expiry
On the expired African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), the CS noted that the government was hopeful that a successor programme would be immediately found following key bilateral agreements that the government has been lobbying for with the U.S.
However, he decried that Kenya did not fully exploit the deal under the pact; mainly, resistance to banning certain imports, such as mitumbas, which he believes has hindered Kenya's production potential.
According to Kinyanjui, Kenya's neighbours and other partners under the pact, such as Rwanda and Uganda, took the painful decisions to ban the importation of second-hand clothes, which spurred their potential under AGOA.
He, however, clarified that the government was not considering the ban on mitumba.
Kinyanjui also added that the government is at the same time engaging and maximising on other bilateral and multilateral agreements as the stalemate on AGOA hangs in the balance.
This, he said, will help address the imbalance created by the pact's expiry. Among the agreements the government is eyeing are those with the Middle East, the European Union and individual trade partners.
