This archive report was first published on 24 August 2021.
Kenya's Special Economic Zones Authority has taken a significant step towards improving its service delivery with the launch of a new web portal. The portal, developed with the support of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), World Bank, aims to boost communication, transparency, and service provision for current and potential investors in the country's special economic zones.
Found at www.sezauthority.go.ke, the web portal will help the SEZ Authority adapt its investor outreach, retention, and after-care strategies to an interactive online platform, supporting investment, growth, and job creation in Kenya.
Special Economic Zones are demarcated areas with unique rules of business, providing private firms with quality, cost-effective, reliable infrastructure, efficient customs services, regulatory predictability, and fiscal incentives. Kenya has ten such zones, which aim to boost competitiveness by ensuring regulatory and administrative predictability, quality industrial infrastructure, and market access.
However, constraints to private sector competitiveness persist in Kenya, including inadequate quality industrial infrastructure, complex and costly regulatory requirements, institutional coordination challenges, and sectoral constraints limiting value addition.
According to Hon. Betty Maina, Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Industrialization, Trade and Enterprise Development, "Special Economic Zones are a key pillar for Kenya's industrialization agenda, value addition, and a platform to leverage and catalyze private sector investment."
Dr. Meshack Kimeu, Acting Special Economic Zones Authority CEO, added that the portal is a repository that allows visitors to learn and interact in real-time with the Authority on cross-cutting issues, including opportunities and incentives, investor road maps, and facilities.
The portal also enables investors to apply to lease land within public Special Economic Zone parks, sign up for news updates, subscribe to the SEZ Authority bulletin, access the resource center, and make online applications.
IFC Country Manager for Kenya, Amena Arif, emphasized the importance of strengthening investment in industrial infrastructures, such as special economic zones, to grow Kenya's economy.
