Kenya

Bridging Kenya’s affordable housing deficit was one commitment made by President Uhuru Kenyatta when he announced his Big Four agenda in 2017. Specifically, a goal was laid out to add up to 500,000 affordable housing units to the nation’s stocks during this second term in office, which ends in mid-2022. The policy could prove to be a key...

The domestic real estate environment in 2017 was shaped by slower economic growth as compared to 2016, stagnating prices and shifts in the retail scene. The Kenyan property market experienced strong performances in 2014-16, with high occupancy seen in the office segment, in particular. However, both commercial and residential real estate...

Kenya’s construction sector experienced slower growth in 2017 than in previous years, owing in part to uncertainty surrounding the contested August general elections, which translated to no major government-led infrastructure projects being announced in the second half of the year. However, while the construction sector grew by less than the 9...

Growth in mobile payments reached 8% in 2017, according to the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK). While steady, this was slower than in 2016 and 2015, when industry growth was 19% and 17%, respectively. Industry stakeholders reported that muted consumer spending was partly due to lower-than-expected economic growth.

In recent years the accelerating uptake of new means of crop production and distribution have begun to change Kenyan smallholder farming. Between 2015 and 2017 Kenyan start-ups involved in agricultural technologies and innovations – also referred to as agri-tech – raised KSh1.37bn ($13.4m). In the wake of this explosive growth, Kenya, which...