Government Reforms

The Government’s economic plan, implemented over the past six years, has addressed various bottlenecks facing businesses such as increasing connectivity by expanding affordable power supply, rail and road networks, ports, markets locally and internationally, affordable financing mechanism and other initiatives that complement the Ease of Doing Business agenda.

The Government is committed to improving the business environment in Kenya to make the country the preferred destination for local and international investors, as part of the broad government industrial development programme (Kenya’s Industrial Transformation Programme – KITP).

The government has in particular placed emphasis on reforms that directly improve processes and costs associated with a broad range of business-related measures such as Company Registration, construction permits, Property Transfers, Commercial litigation, the insolvency framework amongst others. This has been made possible through enacting legislation, re-engineering processes, eliminating red tape, in critical areas that facilitate efficiency in the public sector space interface with the private sector.

In collaboration with the private sector, the Government continues to identify and implement cross-cutting reforms to improve the business regulatory environment on the platform of the Ease of Doing Business Reforms Agenda. Some of the areas in scope have included:

  1. Starting a business;
  2. Dealing with construction permits
  3. Getting electricity;
  4. Registering property;
  5. Getting credit;
  6. Protecting investors;
  7. Paying taxes;
  8. Trading across borders among others

 

To improve Kenya’s business environment, the Government in 2014 established a multi-institutional Business Environment Delivery Unit, which draws membership from various ministries, departments and agencies. The Delivery Unit is mandated to champion the implementation of various business reforms in partnership with the private sector. In 2018, H.E the President strengthened this approach by establishing the Department of Business Reforms and Transformation: a dedicated and resourced Government organ to implement initiatives that make Kenya more competitive both locally and internationally

The department of business reforms and transformation (Ease of doing business) under the ministry of east Africa community and regional development supported by UK Kenya Tech hub among other partners have created an SME Business regulatory toolkit that espouses to help SMEs

  1. Engage with and understand the Kenyan regulatory environment in an easy and accessible manner
  2. Develop awareness to unblock regulatory barriers and enable SMEs in navigating regulatory complexities
  3. Assist in refining Kenya’s business regulatory environment through feedback

This toolkit is freely available to entrepreneur in Kenya and is structured in an easy to understand manner to enable you get the information they need in one place.

The toolkit is broken down into for key business development stages and enumerates the regulatory requirements as well as identifies key regulators within each stage.

  1. Plan Your Business
  2. Launch Your Business
  3. Manage Your Business
  4. Grow Your Business

The toolkit across the four stages provides guidance for regulations and support agencies that are cross cutting to all business as well as to the following identified sectors:

  1. Agriculture
  2. Education
  3. Energy
  4. Health
  5. Manufacturing
  6. Tourism
  7. ICT
  8. Finance
  9. Import-Export
  10. Construction