Kenyan is now ranked the best country to start and run a successful business across the continent in 2022.
A live ranking by US News and World Report showed that globally, the country was ranked at position 26 – an improvement from position 39 in 2021.
According to the outlet, the East African nation scored 53.9 points on its openness for business while it was ranked position 78 on the entrepreneurship front.
In Africa, Kenya was followed by Ghana (position 41 globally), Cameroon (position 50 globally) and Zambia (position 62 globally).
With a population of nearly 55 million, the outlet pegged Kenya’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at Ksh13 trillion while the GDP per capita was estimated at slightly over Ksh600,000.
The ranking was drawn from a global survey of 17,000 people where a deeper concentration was placed among a segment of 4,500 respondent considered “business decision-makers”.
“The list is based on respondents’ association of various countries with five particular attributes: affordable, bureaucratic, cheap manufacturing costs, connected to the rest of the world and provides easy access to capital,” read the statement in part.
Over the recent years, Kenya has been pegged as the African Silicon Valley after attracting a considerable amount of interest from tech multinational.
The country, especially Westlands, was also hailed as a good hub for start-ups to thrive in driving the demand for coders to an all-time high.
Some of the multinationals that created a headquarters in Nairobi include Google, Microsoft, Oracle, Cisco, IBM and Coca-Cola.
To nurture start-ups and businesses, President William Ruto’s regime unveiled a new funding mechanism dubbed Hustler Fund aimed at providing loans to individuals and groups at an affordable interest of 8 per cent.
Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua expressed his confidence that women would take up 70 per cent of the Hustlers fund.
A meeting by the country’s Cabinet resolved that Hustlers Fund loans will be capped at Ksh50,000 for individuals. The CSs also agreed that eligibility for the fund would be based on credit scores.
The roll out will be overseen by the Ministry of Co-operatives, under the stewardship of Simon Chelugui.
