Category: Business Daily

The Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC) has ordered Goodtimes Africa, the company behind the popular Blankets and Wine events, to pay Sh300,000 in compensation for unlawfully using a woman’s image in promotional materials without her consent.

In a determination dated April 8, Data Commissioner Immaculate Kassait found the company liable for violating the Data Protection Act, 2019.

The complaint, filed in December 2025 by Antonate Rombo Aiko, centred on the use of her image in advertisements for the ‘Blankets and Wine Tupatane Onja Onja Summer Events 2025’ across the organiser’s social media platforms.

Aiko argued that the use of her likeness falsely implied endorsement, harmed her professional reputation, and denied her the opportunity to commercially license her image.

Goodtimes Africa, through its lawyers, maintained that consent had been obtained via terms and conditions issued to event attendees, and that any alleged infringement was neither ongoing nor intended for improper commercial gain.

However, the ODPC found that while the respondent relied on general event terms, it failed to demonstrate that the complainant had given express, specific, and informed consent for her image to be used in advertising and promotional content.

‘The Respondent has not demonstrated that such consent specifically extended to the use of the Complainant’s image for commercial advertising and promotional purposes,’ the determination states.

The regulator held that the use of Aiko’s image to promote a revenue-generating event amounted to commercial processing of personal data, which requires clear, express and provable consent under the law.

The ODPC further noted there was no evidence that the complainant was informed her image would be used in marketing materials or that she took any affirmative action to approve such use.

The fallout from two months of war in Iran has stopped the bull run at the Nairobi bourse, helped shrink Kenya’s foreign currency reserves and ushered in increases in cost of items from petrol to fertilisers and freight.

Disruptions to shipping routes linked to Iran have left millions of kilogrammes of tea stuck in warehouses in Mombasa, threatening export earnings and farmer incomes.

In just eight weeks – less time than it takes to finish a school term- the Kenyan economic outlook has been knocked sideways.

The World Bank has downgraded Kenya’s growth forecast to 4.4 percent from 4.9 percent for 2026, weakening the economy’s ability to generate jobs and pay higher salaries as inflation is expected to eat into workers’ earnings.

The worst economic pain will be felt in poor countries like Kenya, where consumers cannot afford higher energy prices, and governments cannot afford to provide aid or subsidies for prolonged periods to offset the costs.

And as financing tightens, the cost of desperately needed borrowing for these countries increases.

The loss of some 20 percent of the world’s energy supplies in the wake of the war, which has seen Iran’s attacks on Gulf energy infrastructure has already been called the ‘greatest global energy security threat in history’ by the International Energy Agency.

In the April-May fuel price review, Kenya raised petrol and diesel prices by Sh19.32 and Sh30.09, respectively, to Sh197.60 and Sh196.63, reflecting the impact of the higher global crude prices.

Besides higher pump prices, Kenya is also facing disruptions in remittances from the Middle East, impaired exports and imports to and from the region, and volatility for the shilling and the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE).

Kenya carries out trade worth Sh700 billion with the Gulf, while remittances from the region account for about 10 percent of the annual flows of $5.1 billion.

Kenya’s exposure to these global geopolitical shocks has now forced the Treasury to seek emergency funding of $300 million (Sh38.8 billion) from the World Bank to cushion the economy.

Food production will be damaged by fertiliser shortages, which will lead to further inflation on costly meals. Fertiliser costs have nearly doubled weeks into the war.

In the financial markets, the war has nudged the shilling into increased volatility.

In early April, the shilling slipped to the 130 level against the dollar for the first time since August 2024, but it has now regained some ground to trade at Sh129.27 to the greenback.

At the Nairobi bourse, investor wealth has grown 0.5 percent or Sh17 billion since the war began, compared to a growth of Sh453.5 billion or 15.3 billion in the first two months of the year.

The slower growth in March and April came despite the listing of Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC) on March 11, which added Sh166 billion in new value to the bourse.

Excluding KPC, the market dipped 4.4 percent.

Total value of Kenya’s mineral output fell to a nine-year low of Sh20.3 billion in 2025, reflecting the closure of titanium ore mines in Kwale County, and exposing the sector’s heavy reliance on the once-dominant mineral.

Latest figures from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics show the total value of mineral production declined from Sh33.8 billion in 2023 to Sh25.5 billion in 2024 before falling further to Sh20.3 billion last year, the lowest level recorded since 2016.

This drop in value came as the sector recorded a strong rebound in activity, highlighting a growing disconnect between production volumes and earnings.

According to the newly released Economic Survey 2026, the mining and quarrying sector staged a recovery from a 7.8 percent contraction in 2024 to achieve a 14.9 percent growth rate in 2025, making it one of the fastest-growing sectors in the economy.

The growth, however, was driven largely by low-value industrial minerals rather than high-value exports. Increased production of materials used in cement manufacturing-aligned with an 18.0 percent jump in cement output to 10.4 million tonnes-helped meet demand from a construction sector that expanded by 6.8 percent.

As a result, while output increased, the overall market value of minerals declined amid weakening global prices for key exports.

The data shows titanium continued to dominate export earnings in the sector.

‘Titanium ores and concentrates continued to account for the largest share of the total value of mineral output,’ the Economic Survey notes, underscoring the industry’s concentration risk.

However, the value of titanium ore minerals has collapsed, with earnings falling to Sh7.8 billion in 2025, down 53.9 percent from Sh17.0 billion in 2024 and a steep drop from the peak of Sh28.3 billion in 2022.

The decline reflects both softer global prices and the winding down and closure of mining operations in Kwale, which had been the backbone of Kenya’s mineral exports.

Despite the shrinking total value of the sector, workers appear to be benefiting from increased activity.

Wage employment in private mining and quarrying rose by 2.0 percent in 2025, while average earnings grew by 6.0 percent, suggesting that the recovery in production is translating into improved incomes on the ground.

Data also shows mixed performance across other minerals. Gold output increased, supported by expanding artisanal and small-scale mining, while soda ash production also improved.

However, fluctuations in global prices meant that these gains did not translate into proportionate increases in total mineral earnings.

While rising gold production points to gradual diversification, its scale remains insufficient to offset the loss of titanium revenues.

The government-backed exploration efforts, including airborne geophysical surveys and mapping, are beginning to identify new mineral prospects that could boost the sector in the long term.

‘Knowledge is a double edged sword. It allows you to do some things, but it makes you blind to other things you could do,’ said computer scientist Pedro Domingos.

To create a profitable innovation, is ‘test and learn’ today better than ‘plan and implement’ tomorrow? Why did Google press the panic button? Should one have one way of thinking, or does it help to put on several cerebral imagining hats? Do you only know who you are when you see what you do? Which is better, a frog or a bird?

Why did Google just push the alarm button?

Basically, there are three types of innovation: efficiency, sustaining, and disruptive. Efficiency innovations often involve cost reduction, ideally maintaining the same level of quality.

Sustaining innovations are all the [normal practice] improvements a business makes to stay current, just to be able to stay in the game, to compete.

Disruptive innovation is the game changer that can transform a business or an industry. Examples would be, for instance, M-Pesa and platform business models.

Artificial intelligence, AI, is today’s great disruptor. Heaven knows what it will be next year. Economics of AI search are starting to shake the foundations of the web with Google hitting the panic button.

‘For years, Google’s dominance rested on a simple formula: organise the internet, capture intent, and monetise attention at scale. But generative AI is beginning to disrupt that model from multiple directions at once. Users are changing how they search. Startups are reshaping expectations. And the old ad-driven pathways that powered the modern web no longer look as untouchable as they once did. That is what makes Google’s recent moves so important. They do not look like the actions of a company casually extending its lead. They look more like the actions of an incumbent reacting to a market that is shifting faster than expected,’ writes Somya Golchhain.

One route to value creation, winning in business, is innovation, which often comes from outsiders. Not those hyper specialists who can’t see the forest for the trees.

‘Big innovation most often happens when an outsider who may be far away from the surface of the problem reframes the problem in a way that unlocks the solution,’ advises Karim Lakhani, from Harvard’s Laboratory for Innovation Science.

Reframe to ‘test and learn’

One way to innovate is to reframe the way one works. Reframe how one thinks about business problems.

Somehow managers have this addiction to [longer term] planning-when in a world of [Strait of Hormuz] complex systems – that no one really understands – the plans made months ago, look quite foolish today.

Helps to be able to put on various thinking hats. One way of thinking, one rigid direction in thought, leads straight to the corporate trash bin.

For just a moment, put on the thinking hat that suggests -don’t commit to anything in the future, but just look at the options available now, and choose those that will give you the most promising range of options.

Might be wise to shift from the ‘plan-and-implement’ model – the idea that we should first make a long-term plan and execute without deviation, as opposed to the ‘test-and-learn’ model -proposed by organisational behaviour thinker Herminia Ibarra. Going into the ‘test-and-learn’ mode will put you in the good company of depictions of geniuses.

‘Popular lore holds that the sculptor Michelangelo would see a full figure in a block of marble before he ever touched it, and simply chip away the excess stone to free the figure inside. It is an exquisitely beautiful image. It just isn’t true. Art historian William Wallace showed that Michelangelo was actually a ‘test-and-learn’ all-star. He constantly changed his mind and altered his sculptural plans as he worked. He left three-fifths of his sculptures unfinished, each time moving on to something more promising,’ writes David Epstein.

You are what you do, not what you say you do – on your LinkedIn.

‘Like anyone eager to raise their match quality prospects, Michelangelo learned who he was-and whom he was carving-in practice, not in theory. He started with an idea, tested it, changed it, and readily abandoned it for a better project fit.

Michelangelo might have fit well in Silicon Valley; he was a relentless iterator. He worked according to Ibarra’s new aphorism: ‘I know who I am when I see what I do,’ pens Epstein.

Rather than have a grand plan, find experiments that can be undertaken quickly. Solve business problems by quick simple tests today, not making up some jargon filled explanation, or by creating a fancy slide deck designed to impress the boss tomorrow. Switch to ‘test-and-learn’ not ‘plan-and-implement’

Focused frogs and visionary birds

Business needs both the worker bees and the queen bees. Physicist and mathematician Freeman Dyson said we need both focused frogs and visionary birds. ‘Birds fly high in the air and survey broad vistas of mathematics out to the far horizon,’ Dyson wrote in 2009.

‘They delight in concepts that unify our thinking and bring together diverse problems from different parts of the landscape. Frogs live in the mud below and see only the flowers that grow nearby. They delight in the details of particular objects, and they solve problems one at a time.’

As a mathematician, Dyson labeled himself a frog, but contended, ‘It is stupid to claim that birds are better than frogs because they see farther, or that frogs are better than birds because they see deeper.’

The world, he wrote, is both broad and deep. ‘We need birds and frogs working together to explore it.’ Dyson’s concern was that science is increasingly overflowing with frogs, trained only in a narrow specialty, unable to change as science itself does.

Not what, but how you think

There has long been a mismatch between the skills, knowledge and mindset that Kenyan employers require – and what is taught in universities and in higher education.

Ability to ‘regurgitate facts on call’ has always been bordering on useless, and even more so in an age of AI – with free intelligence on tap.

You don’t have to go back to ancient Greece to realise that purpose of education is critical thinking, being able to work together with others, in solving a problem. It’s not what you know, it’s how you think. Best thing young graduates can do is put on a ‘harvest problems’ hat, looking out there for the problems that ‘customers’ have, then have the knowledge to pitch the solution to the potential employer.

The Kenyan economy expanded at a slower rate of 4.6 percent in 2025, down from 4.7 percent the previous year, as growth in key sectors, including agriculture and manufacturing, moderated.

Fresh data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics show a slowdown, driven by weaker agricultural output amid disrupted rainfall patterns.

The agriculture sector, which remains the largest segment of the economy, grew at a slower pace of 2.8 percent, down from 4.3 percent previously, as wheat and green leaf tea production fell during the year.

The manufacturing sector also slowed, expanding by 2.1 percent compared with 3.2 percent in 2024.

The construction sector, however, marked a significant recovery, expanding by 6.8 percent from a contraction of 0.7 percent, supported largely by the resumption of government road works.

Jobs growth

Formal employment recovered during the year despite the slower growth rate, rising by four percent to 3.5 million.

The share of informal employment declined slightly to 83.8 percent from 90 percent previously, accounting for 18.1 million jobs.

Total employment for the period stood at 21.6 million.

The Kenyan economy is now valued at Sh17.6 trillion, while GDP per capita stands at $2,549, or about Sh329,330.

On Sunday, April 26, a Kenyan named Sabastian Sawe ran 26.2 miles in one hour, 59 minutes and 30 seconds. He became the first human being in history to break the two-hour marathon barrier in a sanctioned race. At the finish line on The Mall in London, he said something simple: Everything is possible with a matter of time. I had a lot of courage to push, even when the pace was fast.

Keep that sentence. We will return to it.

The same weekend, in the Founders Battlefield Exchange, a community built for honest founder conversation, a different kind of race was being discussed. Sam opened it plainly.

Kenya’s morning news cycle begins with damage, disaster and dysfunction. After years of absorbing it, he had stopped buying newspapers.

A quiet act of self-preservation. Waihiga sharpened the observation. Bad news is not accidental. It moves faster and it shapes legitimacy.

The optics do not stop at the headline. They determine who gets board seats, who gets bypassed. Real builders watch rebranded players collect platforms.

Then it moved to the transaction level. Landing a large corporate feels like a victory until the contract begins. Scope expands. Payments shrink. Timelines stretch. And government? One voice in the room simply wrote: let us not even go there before the therapy session. Another was more direct. The contract says pay. Politics says we will see. Politics usually wins.

There it was. The full anatomy of the siege. The media sets a scarcity frame. Institutions reward the wrong actors.

Government is the largest buyer and the most unreliable payer. John, a career banker, entrepreneur and former board chair of state corporations, gave it its sharpest name. The python’s embrace. Warm because government is big and familiar. Choking because that is what pythons do.

But Roy added the mirror nobody wanted to hold. Did you cost in the kickbacks in the tender? Did you hear the alarm bells at the start of that engagement? Most founders did. They filed the bid anyway because the overhead was real and the alternative felt like standing still. The siege is not only what the system does to founders. It is what survival pressure makes founders do to themselves.

And yet, beneath all the noise, something quietly clarifies. The daily back and forth, the political theatre, the delayed payments – none of it is disappearing. What shifts is the founder who decides that forward movement is not contingent on the environment settling first. Alignment is not something the system grants.

It is built deliberately, forging ahead while rebalancing the sheet – not just the financial one, but the emotional one. That is the discipline.

Here is where the turn begins. John said something else. Government is the largest buyer but not the only one. Kenya is not the only market. The horticulture sector did not grow by waiting for government to change. Tatu City targets the world. M-Gas reshaped how a country cooks without a single procurement tender.

Then AI entered the conversation. Five years ago, landing a client in Dubai or London required a flight, a referral, or a logo that carried institutional weight.

Today, a founder with a real solution, clear communication and AI tools managing marketing, sales and delivery can compete for global contracts from a co-working space in Westlands or a spare room in Ruiru. The gatekeeper was never only the politician or the procurement officer. It was also distance, cost and information asymmetry. AI is collapsing all three simultaneously.

This is where Dangote becomes more than a story. He was undermined at home, dismissed, actively sabotaged in the market that should have celebrated him first. He built anyway. He went continental. He changed his geography and his timeline.

Last week he was in Nairobi, bidding for East African infrastructure from a position of irreversible credibility. The tides do not stay against you forever. But you must still be standing when they turn.

One voice added the necessary caution. AI carries embedded assumptions. Most tools were built far from African contexts. If Africa only consumes rather than shapes them, we replace one hierarchy with another.

The opportunity is not only to use AI first. It is to ensure African problems, languages and contexts sit at the centre of what these tools become.

That is the discipline this season demands. Know when the water you are fishing in is working for you. A skilled fisher does not keep casting in a depleted stream out of habit.

They read the water, swim to shore when needed and find the current that is actually moving.

Sawe ran the second half of his race faster than the first. He did not survive the marathon. He accelerated through it. Pius closed the weekend with three words: no human is limited.

He is right. What holds founders back is rarely talent. It is rarely even circumstance. It is the imagination trained to see only the local dysfunction.

The python that feels like the only option because it is the most familiar. Courage is not the absence of those realities. It is the decision to look past them toward the current that is actually moving.

The world is genuinely accessible in ways it has never been. The proof is running under two hours in London. Everything is possible with a matter of time. The only question that remains is whether you will be ready when your moment arrives.

The government has reduced its investment in housing levy collections in Treasury bills, signalling improved absorption of funds in the ongoing construction of State-backed homes for low- and middle-income households, valued at approximately Sh500 billion.

Fresh data from the Economic Survey 2026 shows that absorption of funds from housing levy collections surged to 96.3 percent of the Sh79.03 billion budget in the financial year ended June 2025, compared to 32.6 percent of Sh78.18 billion the previous year.

Actual spending on housing more than tripled to Sh79.03 billion in the year under review, up from Sh25.49 billion in the previous year, the Economic Survey 2026 shows.

The spending on housing projects has climbed even more steeply from Sh9.13 billion in the 2022/23 financial year, before the housing levy – deducted at the rate of 1.5 percent of monthly pay slips and matched by employers – took effect from July 2023.

‘During the review period, expenditure on housing increased significantly, reflecting improved absorption of allocated funds and scaling up of affordable housing projects,’ the KNBS writes in the Economic Survey notes, pointing to stronger execution capacity within the State Department for Housing and Urban Planning.

Reports from the Affordable Housing Board had previously shown that nearly half of the housing levy collections were not immediately deployed to projects despite being ring-fenced.

Tens of billions of shillings left unspent were temporarily invested in Treasury bills – interest-earning government securities that mature between three and 12 months.

‘It is not prudent, even as a government, to have money sitting, lying idle in an account. The money is safe, fully invested in government securities, and the accounts we are operating are CBK accounts, which have full sight of the government on every expenditure,’ the Affordable Housing Board acting chief executive, Sheila Waweru, said in an interview earlier.

‘So we can put the money in Treasury bills as a manager of the [affordable housing] fund, and it brings in additional money, say Sh2 billion, and that enables us to put up more units, which we will not do if the cash were staying in an account idly. This is a measure for prudent management of the fund.’

The stepped-up spending is feeding into the largest State-backed construction drives in Kenya’s history, with more than 205,000 housing units under development across the country at an estimated value of nearly Sh500 billion as of December 2025.

The bulk of these fall under the Affordable Housing Programme, where 138,474 units are under construction with a value of Sh385.83 billion.

Social housing projects had a pipeline of 53,350 units with an estimated construction cost of Sh81.8 billion, while institutional housing projects comprised 12,709 units with an estimated cost of Sh28.6 billion.

The remaining 778 housing units under construction are being done by the National Housing Corporation for Sh3.7 billion.

‘Budgetary allocations to the housing sector continued to rise, supporting ongoing construction and expansion of the housing stock,’ the Survey states, linking higher spending directly to increased project activity on the ground.

The ramp-up comes against a backdrop of strong inflows into the housing fund. The Kenya Revenue Authority collected Sh73.2 billion from the levy in the 2024/25 financial year, exceeding the National Treasury’s projection of Sh63.2 billion.

This added to the Sh54.16 billion collected in the levy’s first year, despite a three-month suspension following a court ruling that initially declared the deductions unconstitutional because it applied only to workers in formal employment, thereby creating unequal principles under Employment law.

The legal setback prompted Parliament to pass the Affordable Housing Act, 2024, allowing collections to resume from March 2024 under an expanded framework that includes workers in the informal sector, and reinforcing the government’s commitment to the programme.

The earlier accumulation of idle funds highlighted structural bottlenecks in project rollout. Construction projects typically take time to design, procure, and execute, meaning inflows initially outpaced spending.

This led to at least a third of the proceeds previously being invested in Treasury bills with maturities of between three and 12 months.

The latest data suggests that the gap is narrowing as implementation gathers pace, with the State moving more aggressively to convert levy collections into physical housing units.

The number of Kenyans employed in firms under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) increased by 15,222 in the period under review.

Official data shows that 82,026 employees were working for the Agoa-accredited companies last year, from 66,804, a year earlier in the same period that the number of firms grew to 44 from 40.

The increase in workforce and firms signals that the country was not hit by a temporary suspension of Agoa and introduction of 10 percent tariffs for entry of Kenya goods to the US market.

The Agoa-a 25-year old piece of US legislation guaranteeing duty-free access to American consumers for certain goods from Africa. The duty free access was reinstated in February.

‘The number of enterprises operating under Agoa increased from 40 in 2024 to 44 in 2025. Subsequently, employment grew by 22.8 per cent to 82,026 persons during the review period,’ the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics says in the Economic Survey 2025.

The increase in the number of firms operating under Agoa drove capital investment in the sector to Sh42.25 billion last year from Sh38.26 billion a year earlier.

Agoa’s expiry triggered layoffs at some of the companies such as Shona Export Processing Zone (EPZ) while United Aryan EPZ had said that it would shed 1,000 jobs on expiry of the pact.

A number of firms had recorded reduced orders late last year amid the uncertainties before the pact was extended. Kenya’s textiles and apparel sector, where most of the Agoa-accredited firms operate, employs over 80,000 people directly and more than 250,000 indirectly.

The World Bank had warned that Kenya, Lesotho and Madagascar would be hit hardest by the expiry of AGOA. The Bretton woods institution said that exporters of apparel and textiles in the three countries would be forced to shed jobs.

But official data shows the value of exports under Agoa dipped slightly, making it the only item affected as the country faced four months of uncertainty, awaiting a decision from President Trump’s administration.

The value of the textiles and apparel dipped to Sh58.07 billion last year from Sh60 billion a year earlier even as the volumes surged to 148 million pieces.

‘Despite the decline in export value, the quantity of apparel shipped to the USA rose significantly from 116.0 million pieces in 2024 to 148.0 million pieces in 2025,’ KNBS added.

President Trump’s administration signed a one-year extension of AGOA on February 2, 2026, which lasts until December 31, 2026.

The extension, which is a major reprieve to the select sub-Saharan countries, will allow the US to review the trade agreement to favor its companies.

AGOA, was signed into law in 2000 by former President Bill Clinton and allows eligible countries in sub-Saharan Africa to sell around 7,000 products to the United States duty-free.

The duty-free exports have added to the competitiveness of the products and in turn allowed local companies to hire more workers.

Micro-finance lenders want a longer threshold of three months before disbursed loans can be declared as non-performing, to ease repayment pressure on borrowers and shield the sector from elevated provisioning costs that erode profitability.

The Association of Microfinance Institutions of Kenya (Amfi-K), which comprises 91 entities, says that the current rule requiring loans to be classified as in default after just a month forces them to pile more pressure on borrowers, unlike banks that enjoy a three-month window.

They said in a forum on Wednesday their loan book closed March 2026 at Sh40.46 billion, marking a growth from Sh34.5 billion at the end of December 2025. They believe relaxing the rules for booking defaults can incentivise lending and borrowing.

‘It is a major problem. Once you provide at 30 days, it is treated as a loss and hits revenue immediately. We have to spend more on recovery because officers must follow up with customers almost daily to avoid crossing the 30-day mark. That creates a lot of pressure on customers,’ said Simon Kamore, vice chairman at Amfi-K, in an interview.

Collateral for microfinance lenders is mostly social-group guarantees or household items, which are not considered in provisioning, unlike for banks, which rely on physical assets like land and vehicles when issuing loans.

Wangaruro Mbira, chairman at Amfi-K, said a change to the current regulations will help correct the issues that have stood in the way of microfinance institutions’ growth.

‘There are many pockets of regulation that are not speaking to each other, and that is part of the challenge. We need a more coherent and responsive regulatory framework that creates a level playing field,’ said Mr Mbira.

Amfi-K data shows that the micro-lenders closed March this year with an NPLs ratio-a share of loans for which interest has not been received for at least 30 days-at 14 percent.

They say the ratio would fall to below five percent if they apply the three-month window, as is the case with the banking sector, whose default rate stood at 15.6 percent over the same period.

The association says the 30-day window for loan collection has also hurt profitability of its members since interest accruing on NPLs is booked as suspended interest, leading to higher provisioning.

David Mukaru, CEO at Caritas Micro-finance Bank, said a different set of rules on NPLs ‘creates confusion and an uneven playing field,’ disadvantaging micro-lenders and their borrowers.

‘A microfinance bank will flag the loan as non-performing much earlier, while a bank will still consider it performing. The economy is affecting everyone equally, so there needs to be fairness in rules,’ he said.

A higher loan loss provisioning increases their operating costs, cutting profits while piling pressure on their capital. In addition, it increases the amount booked as suspended interest, which the Kenya Revenue Authority still factors in when taxing them.

Microfinanciers’ loan book is concentrated in agriculture, trade, education, health, and transport, with loan sizes averaging Sh100,000. Debt accounts for 66 percent to 80 percent of the total funding, while equity is between 20 percent and 34 percent.

‘We largely rely on debt to fund our operations, often borrowing from commercial banks to lend onward. This compounds our cost of capital because we start from where commercial banks end,’ said Mr Mbira.

The government’s recent announcement of the shift by Kenya from exporting raw minerals toward prioritising local processing is not only timely but also essential.

For decades, Kenya has operated within a model that extracts value from the ground only to export it elsewhere for refinement, manufacturing, and profit realisation.

This approach has limited our economic potential, weakened our industrial base, and denied Kenyans the full benefits of our natural wealth. The government’s decision to shift course is therefore a strategic step toward economic transformation.

At its core, this policy recognises a simple truth; the real value of minerals lies not in their raw form, but in their processed and finished states.

By investing in local processing and refining capacity, Kenya stands to significantly increase foreign exchange earnings, reduce dependency on imports of finished mineral products, and strengthen its position in global value chains.

Instead of being price-takers for raw commodities, we can become competitive players in higher-value markets.

However, for this policy to achieve its intended impact, it must be anchored in law. Formalising this shift through legislation will provide certainty and protection for investors, ensure consistency across political cycles, and safeguard Kenya’s mineral integrity.

Without a legal framework, there is a risk of policy reversals or uneven implementation, which could undermine confidence in the sector. A well-structured law would also help regulate standards, curb illegal exports, and ensure that processing requirements are met transparently and fairly.

The implications for the mining sector are profound; local processing will stimulate demand for infrastructure, technology, and skilled labour, thereby catalysing growth across the entire mining value chain.

It will encourage the establishment of smelters, refineries, and mineral-based manufacturing industries, transforming mining from a largely extractive activity into an integrated industrial ecosystem. This shift will also enhance traceability and accountability, strengthening governance within the sector.

From an economic perspective, the benefits are equally compelling. Increased value addition will translate into higher export revenues and improved balance of trade. It will also expand the tax base, providing the government with more resources to invest in public services and infrastructure.

Perhaps most importantly, this policy has the potential to create jobs at scale. Local processing industries are labour-intensive compared to raw extraction, meaning more opportunities for employment across various skill levels-from technicians and engineers to logistics providers and support services.

This is particularly significant for young people entering the workforce and for communities located near mining areas, who have historically seen limited direct benefits from resource extraction.

That said, unlocking these opportunities will require deliberate and sustained effort. One of the most critical areas is capacity building. A large portion of Kenya’s mining workforce operates within the artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) segment, often without formal training, adequate safety gear, or access to modern technology.

If we are to integrate this workforce into a more advanced, processing-oriented sector, we must invest in their skills development.

This includes establishing training programs, technical institutes, and partnerships with industry players to upskill workers in areas such as mineral processing, safety standards, environmental management, and equipment handling.

In addition, several other enablers are essential.

First, infrastructure must be strengthened, reliable energy supply, transport networks, and water resources are critical for processing facilities.

Second, access to finance must be improved, particularly for local entrepreneurs and small-scale operators who wish to participate in value addition.

Third, regulatory efficiency is key; licensing processes must be streamlined and transparent to encourage investment while maintaining high standards.

Furthermore, research and development should be prioritized, collaborations between universities, research institutions, and industry can drive innovation in mineral processing technologies and ensure that Kenya remains competitive globally.

Environmental sustainability must also be at the forefront, with clear guidelines and enforcement mechanisms to minimize the ecological impact of expanded industrial activity.

Finally, community engagement is vital, the success of this policy will depend on ensuring that local communities see tangible benefits through employment, infrastructure development, and revenue-sharing mechanisms. This will foster trust, reduce conflict, and create a more inclusive mining sector.

This shift provides a great turning point in our economic journey; it is an opportunity to redefine how we manage and benefit from our natural resources.