The unit which will have representatives from all ministries, will focus on doing away with bureaucracies that investors face while setting up and doing business in the country/FILE
The unit which will have representatives from all ministries, will focus on doing away with bureaucracies that investors face while setting up and doing business in the country.
Speaking during the launch of the unit on Wednesday, Acting President William Ruto directed the Industrialisation Ministry to formulate performance indicators that will measure the contributions of all other ministries into helping the unit thrive.
“I am confident that the necessary stewardship is in place to make sure that next time we go through this assessment we will have a positive report that we are indeed moving Kenya towards a much more competitive destination,” Ruto said.
The other 17 ministries are expected to help the team look for ways of reducing lengthy and unnecessary processes of accessing crucial services by business people in State offices and which end up discouraging most of them from setting shop in Kenya.
“With this development, we will boost our ease of doing business indicators as well as our global competitiveness ranking which influence investor decision making globally,” Ruto said.
By forming this unit, Kenya is now targeting position 20 in the ease of doing business annual ranking done by the World Bank by the year 2020 from the current 129 out of 186 countries in the World.
Rwanda leads in the region at position 32, with Kenya following at 129, Uganda third at 132, Burundi at 140 and Tanzania at 145.
Industrialisation Cabinet Secretary Adan Mohammed is however optimistic that the new unit will ensure that Kenya becomes attractive to both local and foreign investors adding that most of the challenges can easily be removed.
He touched on addressing bureaucracies in getting licenses, business registration, high energy costs and bribery among others.
“There has been so much talk on these problems, but this is the first time dedicated teams are being created to see that we pay attention to details by making sure that ministries own this process,” Mohammed said.
The Industrialisation Ministry will be the one spearheading the team with the help of Strathmore Business School and IBM who will give technical support.
The CS said the unit which is permanent, will start with a team of 18 members representing all ministries and is expected to provide updates every quarter to the public.
