Kenya has continued to lead in attracting businesses with many business leaders seeing the country as preferred destination in Africa. It could be recalled that late last year, a group of top African CEOs ranked Kenya as the second leading business destination for big companies looking for growth prospects in 2019. This was conveyed in a survey carried out by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). The Survey which involved about 171 African CEOs through interviews showed that 22 top CEOs pointed out Kenya as an important market destination for growth opportunities. Kenya came in 2nd after the US which was ranked higher by 24 business leaders in the said CEO survey.
The choice of Kenya has continued to highlight other pertinent issues that influence business choices across the continent. Kenya according to Dr. Marcel Mkiwa has not been immune from other development challenges facing sister African countries. However, what Kenya has going for it has been more symbolic in projecting the country. Unlike many other African countries, Kenya has not had any military incursion into its politics inspite of several near chaotic descents into anarchy due to political wrangling, but the country always manage to pull through. This is seen as strength by businesses that worry about stability of their operating environments. The Kenyan democratic experiment has continued to be strengthened even against the backdrop of challenges and security issues the country has had to go through over the years.
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Geography is another thing Kenya has going for it. The country is a high altitude nation with a friendly weather unlike the highly humid weather of west and central Africa. Add to this is Kenya accessibility from virtually over 65 percent of African countries due to the strength of Kenya Airways connections in the continent, this is aside the fact that Kenya’s capital Nairobi has direct flight connection to all major business and financial hubs on earth.
Moreover, Kenya being a tourism hub has well developed hospitality infrastructure that cater for well heeled business executives who may not like to separate business and pleasure. Buttressing some of these facts, the PwC Regional Senior Partner Peter Ngahu added that most of the CEOs cited uncertainty in government policies, skills gaps to drive innovation and over-regulation.
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“The CEOs are looking for new markets … but they are approaching the new markets with some level of caution. So if they are identifying economies outside of their home, Kenya, given its level of stability, remains quite popular,” PwC Kenya assurance leader Kang’e Saiti added.
According to the findings of the PwC’s 7th Africa Business Agenda 2019, most of the CEOs ranked big companies with annual revenue of more than USD 100 million, largely located in South Africa. This was inspite of the rising pessimism in finding growth opportunities, 20 percent were of the view that they did not know of the right places to seek growth, a higher rate than the 8 percent recorded in 2018. But 29 percent of global CEOs projected a decline in global economic growth, up from a mere 5 percent last year.
In addition, the report stated that at least 25 percent of chief executive officers in the continent believe that the global economy will decline over the next 12 months.Most of them have reduced confidence in the strength of the global economy and their organizations’ ability to grow revenues in both short and medium-term. “Only 27 percent are ‘very confident’ in their own companies’ prospects for revenue growth over the next 12 months.
“Our survey findings also indicate that CEOs are more concerned about the factors that impact the ease of doing business in the markets where they operate, “the PwC report stated adding that the booses are wary of factors that impact their overall confidence and willingness to invest and/or take the risk.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry