Kenya has dropped its position in the most preferred markets for startups in the world according to a report by the StartupBlink Global Startup Ecosystem Index 2022.
The report released on Monday, August 29, shows that Kenya currently ranks 62nd position, a drop from the previous year’s performance where the country ranked 61st.
Kenya was also overtaken by Nigeria as the second best market for startup investments in Africa. The East African country now ranks third after South Africa (49) and Nigeria (61).
However, the report shows that Kenya could still reclaim its place as the second best- given that the gap between her and Nigeria is minimal.
“It is interesting to note that Kenya has a higher Quantity score and Business score than Nigeria, but has a lower Quality score, resulting in a lower overall rank.”
The country’s overall performance also affected that of Kenyan cities.
As per the report, Nairobi city dropped three positions downward in 2022 as compared to 2020 when the city was ranked first.
At the instant, Nairobi is the 5th behind Lagos, Capetown, Johannesburg, and Cairo.
"Nairobi, which ranked 1st in Africa in 2020, has lost 3 positions to rank 5th in Africa, now preceded not only by Lagos, but also by Capetown, Johannesburg, and Cairo," the report reads.
Despite ranking 163rd in the overall global performance, the city registered better results in fintech, food tech and energy industries where it ranked 37, 80 and 71 respectively.
The city of Mombasa also dropped positions to occupy position 891 out of the 1000 global startups.
StartupBlink is a research centre that conducts surveys to uncover the performances of startup environments across the globe.
Some of the parameters used to rank include access to finances, government policies and support infrastructure such as the internet and technology.
