Nairobi, Kenya – 8^th May 2025: The Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA), in collaboration with the Ministry of Investments, Trade and Industry through the Kenya Investment Authority (KenInvest) and The National Treasury have agreed to work together on raising public awareness of micro and macro data related to government fiscal and monetary policy. This joint effort aims to ensure collective public participation in national planning.

In a roundtable on creating an enabling business environment to support sustainable economic growth in Kenya held today, speakers emphasised the importance of involving all stakeholders in the national policy formulation, which includes the fiscal consolidation plan, expenditure rationalisation, export promotion and public debt. The event brought together senior representatives from the public and private sectors to deliberate on priority reforms needed to enhance Kenya’s business climate.

The chief guest, Dr. Chris Kiptoo - Principal Secretary, the National Treasury, reaffirmed the government's commitment to fostering a predictable and investor-friendly regulatory framework, emphasising the need for fiscal policy alignment with national industrialisation goals.

“The World Bank has predicted a slowdown in global economies due to geopolitical factors. However, we have always prided ourselves on being a resilient nation. Through the National Treasury, the government is actively diversifying the economy to ensure we remain stable, maintaining an average growth rate of 5.0% per year, positioning Kenya among the top-performing economies in Sub-Saharan Africa.” Said Dr. Kiptoo.

On his part, Mr. Abubakar Hassan Abubakar - Principal Secretary, State Department for Investment Promotion, reiterated the Ministry’s focus on eliminating bottlenecks to investment facilitation, particularly in regulatory processes, licensing, and the ease of doing business. “We have also ensured that we mitigate market risks by addressing the issue of illicit and counterfeit good as a safeguard measure,” he noted.

The private sector players, led by KEPSA CEO Ms Carole Kariuki, underscored the importance of building institutional trust and promoting regulatory efficiency. Ms Kariuki called for simplified licensing procedures, reduced tax compliance costs, and greater transparency in public–private engagement.

“Taxation is one of the key barriers to businesses and over the past two year we have been working on ways to work together as public and private sector on what roles can we play to facilitate ease of doing business,” said Ms. Kariuki, emphasising the urgency of bold, collaborative action to unlock Kenya’s economic potential.

Speaking during the event, KenInvest CEO Mr. John Mwendwa said, “The roundtable is a catalyst for progressive change, aligning with our core mission to streamline investment processes, foster dialogue and create a predictable, enabling environment. It reflects our belief that strong public-private partnerships are key to accelerating Kenya’s economic transformation."  

The private sector during the Roundtable raised concerns on the stability and sustainability of fiscal policies; the cost of production, which included the cost of electricity, raw materials and intermediary goods; sustainable social health financing; an incentive framework to spur Kenya’s position as an education hub, among other issues.

Some of the key takeaways from the roundtables included;

• Convening sector-specific roundtables in manufacturing to unlock competitiveness, in education to deliberate on the incentives framework and in ICT to discuss leveraging existing infrastructure.
• Collaboration towards formulating the Kenya Industrial Policy to guide fiscal policies.
• Collaboration to ensure implementation of fair tax reforms and a debt management strategy to reduce vulnerabilities while maintaining public service.
• Resolution for the government to fully implement the e-procurement system for all state entities to curb public expenditure waste