 How Kenya planned to reclaim its throne as the fastest growing economy in East Africa? With an average yearly growth rate of 5.9% between 2010 and 2018, Kenya was one of the fastest growing economies in Africa prior to the COVID-19 outbreak. Kenya just attained lower middle income status with a GDP of $95 billion, and it has effectively built a broad and dynamic economy. The economic disruptions caused by COVID-19, together with persistent issues like corruption and economic inequality, have made it harder for Kenya to achieve sustained and equitable economic growth. One of the economies in the world with the quickest growth rates is Kenya, which has emerged in recent years. Kenya has frequently been considered as the main economic and commercial hub of East Africa because of the strategic importance of its coastal city, Mombasa, and the advantageous regional trade ties. The country's notable economic development continues to be supported by the strengthening transportation infrastructure, ongoing pro-business reforms, and the services sector, which is the main growth tracker. These factors present a wealth of opportunities for businesses and investors. Do you want to know how Kenya will reclaim this position? Stay with us to find out. Please help us grow and produce more great content for you. Make sure to like this video, comment, and subscribe to our channel. Watch to the end to find out if Kenya will succeed. There are several reasons why Kenya is becoming the fastest growing economy in East Africa. They are analyzed as follows. Diversified economy, which attracts investments. East Africa's largest economy, Kenya, has experienced significant expansion in recent years. Since the financial crisis of 2008, there has been an average annual real GDP growth of roughly 5.5%, a surge that indicates the nation's continuing economic stability and major improvements in its business environment. Kenya's economy is still largely dependent on agriculture, which generated nearly one fifth of the nation's GDP in 2018 through the export of goods like coffee, tea, and horticulture. Even though manufacturing only accounts for 10% of Kenya's GDP, the country continues to place a high priority on its development since the government views it as a key driver of long-term economic growth and development, job creation, and poverty reduction. Kenya's Big Four National Economic Transformation Agenda aims to boost the manufacturing sector's GDP contribution to 15% by 2022, with the focus on expanding sub-sectors, including preprocessing and textiles and apparel. Nearly two-thirds of the growth in Kenya's GDP during the past five years has come from the services sector, which has been the main engine of the country's economic expansion. One of Kenya's most significant sectors and a major source of foreign exchange revenue is tourism. Kenya continues to be a natural tourism magnet with its national parks, game reserves, and other beautiful natural features, drawing around two million tourists in 2018. The country's economic growth has also been mostly driven by trade and financial services, which have been aided by a comparatively developed banking industry and financial system in comparison to other sub-Saharan African nations. Kenya's diverse economy and lengthy history of private sector development, in contrast to much of the rest of the continent, have made it the most alluring investment location in the area. Following its neighbor Ethiopia, Kenya is the second largest beneficiary of foreign direct investments, FDI, in East Africa, with a total FDI stock of $14.4 billion in 2018. Investors are urged to pay close attention to the nation's rapidly expanding businesses, especially those that fall under the umbrella of the big four agenda, manufacturing, food security, housing, and healthcare. Infrastructural development, improving connectivity. Kenya has started a number of major transportation infrastructure projects recently in an effort to increase logistical effectiveness and strengthen its position as a regional trading and economic hub. The Port of Mombasa Extension Project, the biggest deepwater port in East and Central Africa, is one noteworthy example. The port not only caters to the home market, but also trade from landlocked neighbors including South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, DRC, and Uganda. In reality, Uganda made for more than a quarter of the port's cargo volume in 2018, making it the largest customer of the Mombasa Port. The Port of Mombasa, which handled 1.2 million TEUS in 2018, is the seventh busiest port in Africa, according to the Kenya Port's authority. The Kaipu container terminal is being built at the port as a second container terminal by the Kenyan government in order to meet the demand for capacity increase, which has increased by 10% yearly on average over the past 10 years. The Kaipu container terminal's first phase was finished and put into operation in 2016. The second phase's completion, which is anticipated in 2022, will increase the port's capacity by 1 million TEUS. A standard gauge railway, SGR, was built and opened in 2017 to improve trade and lessen traffic congestion between the port of Mombasa and the nation's capital Nairobi. When compared to shipping by road, traders can cut their freight costs by up to two-fifths, thanks to the SGR additionally. The travel time was decreased from 24 hours to a maximum of eight hours. Two trains run daily on the Mombasa Nairobi SGR, which provides passenger services as well. The SGR has served 3 million passengers and transported more than 4.4 million tons of cargo in its first two years of operation. One of the factors influencing Kenya's sustained investment in transportation infrastructure is regional integration. A 23 billion US dollars multimodal project called the Lamu Port South Sudan Ethiopia Transport Lapset Corridor seeks to improve integration between Kenya, Ethiopia, and South Sudan. There are six major projects included in it, including the construction of a new port at Lamu in northern Kenya, inter-regional motorways, standard gauge railroad lines, an oil pipeline, new airports, and resort city development. Another deep seaport in Kenya, Lamu Port, will primarily serve as a transshipment center for freight going to ports like Maputo in Mozambique. Regional trading hub with global perspective. According to the Trade 20 Index, Kenya is one of the emerging stars of international trade. As its infrastructure and ease of doing business continue to advance, its role as a gateway to African markets is being further solidified by its involvement in regional economic blocks. Kenya is a member of the East African community and the common market for eastern and southern Africa, the two largest economic communities in Africa. Being a member of these two regional economic groups, which together account for about half of all people in Africa, grants Kenya duty-free access to other members while enforcing a single external tariff on non-members. Additionally, Kenya has led the charge in promoting regional integration and establishing the biggest free trade zone in Africa. Kenya has demonstrated a strong commitment to promoting free trade within Africa, but it has also established significant commercial ties with other nations. The African Growth and Opportunity Act, which grants duty-free access to the U.S. market for more than 6,000 agricultural and non-agricultural goods like clothing and textiles, benefits Kenya. In fact, the U.S. ranked behind only Uganda and Pakistan as the third largest market for Kenyan exports in 2018. The East Africa Community European Union Economic Partnership Agreement, which exempts all East Africa community exports from all quota constraints and permits zero duty entry into the EU, has only been ratified by one East Africa community member, Kenya. Kenya continues to have duty and quota-free access to the EU market under the market access regulation, despite the agreement now being on hold due to Tanzania's worries about how it will affect the industrialization of East Africa. Silicon Savannah, East Africa's tech hub. Kenya, often known as the Silicon Savannah, or Africa's Silicon Valley, is embracing ICT as a vital driver of future economic progress. The national ICT policy, which was introduced in 2006 and amended a decade later, intends to assure the availability of accessible, dependable, and reasonably priced ICT services while encouraging innovation within the industry. A variety of more recent topics, including cybersecurity, e-government, and the knowledge economy, are also included in the revised policy. The emergence of numerous innovations, like Mpisa, a mobile payment and transfer system, introduced in 2007 by the top Kenyan telecom provider, Seferiqom, has been made possible by the favorable policy and legal climate. Mpisa has demonstrated that customers can send, receive, and store money using even the most basic mobile phone. The Mpisa app has swiftly taken off, and there are currently over 37 million active users across seven African nations. Additionally, Kenya is home to more than 200 digital startups and the regional offices of major ICT giants like IBM, Intel, and Google. Microsoft has established an Africa Development Center in Nairobi, and networking equipment maker Cisco has also established an innovation hub there. Given its unders of fiber optic cables, Kenya has one of the highest internet speeds in the area and is today regarded as a genuinely connected environment. This, along with the population's expanding access to technology and the growing backing from foreign investors, make Kenya's digital ecosystem an appealing place for investment and innovation. Kenya is not giving up on ensuring that she becomes the fastest growing East African nation with all the achievements of development that has been put in place by her government. It is absolutely great to see African nations thrive and other to one day become world superpowers. Thanks for watching. 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