Qatar to support Kenya transform into financial hub
President Uhuru Kenyatta in talks with His Highness the Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani during an official reception at Emir Diwan, Doha, on Wednesday. Photo/PSCU
Qatar has pledged to support the development of Nairobi as the region’s financial hub to help enhance Kenya’s competitiveness and attract foreign direct investment.
President Uhuru Kenyatta held discussions with Qatari finance minister Ali Al-Emadi who said making Nairobi a financial centre would stimulate economic growth by providing businesses with access to funding.
Kenya is positioning Nairobi to have a well-functioning financial system to attract international capital issuers and investors and act as the gateway for capital into the eastern and southern Africa region.
“This will unlock Kenya’s potential as an investment destination and we are ready to work with Kenya in achieving that goal,” Mr Al-Emadi told President Kenyatta on Wednesday.
Kenya began establishing the Nairobi International Financial Centre in 2008 as one of the flagship projects under the development blueprint dubbed Vision 2030.
National Treasury secretary Henry Rotich in November last year picked a 10-member steering committee to develop the legal and regulatory framework for the centre.
Kenya is exploiting its strategic location as a gateway into Eastern Africa and a fairly developed banking and capital market to place itself as the region’s financial hub.
Nairobi already hosts representative offices of global lenders including HDFC Bank, HSBC Bank Plc, Nedbank, FirstRand Bank, Bank of China, Central Bank of India and Bank of Kigali.
Kenya has also stepped up its bid to host Africa’s first clearing house for the Chinese yuan, in a move that will cut the costs traders incur when converting local currencies to the dollar then to the Chinese currency.
Chinese premier Li Keqiang visits Kenya next month and is expected to sign the deal with his host Mr Kenyatta for the Yuan clearing house.
Financial services make up about 5.4 per cent of Kenya’s GDP, ranking the industry fifth after agriculture (24 per cent), transport and communications (12 per cent), manufacturing (9 per cent) and education at six per cent.
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