Kenya’s president is wooing American tech firms, promising a business-friendly setting — although he has raised taxes on companies at dwelling
ByEVELYNE MUSAMBI Related Press
September 15, 2023, 3:46 PM
Sitoyo Lopokoiyit, M-Pesa CEO, speaks throughout a U.S.- Kenya Enterprise Roadshow hosted by Prosper Africa, a U.S. Commerce and Funding Initiative, in San Francisco, Friday, Sept. 15, 2023. (AP Picture/Jeff Chiu)
The Related Press
NAIROBI, Kenya — Kenya’s president is wooing American tech firms, promising a business-friendly setting — although he has raised taxes on companies at dwelling.
President William Ruto made the attraction in an deal with to main U.S. expertise firms and buyers on Friday in San Francisco, highlighting funding alternatives in his nation and lauding his authorities’s “strategic priorities.”
“For the sake of stability, we’ve a tax code that’s easy to implement, constant, truthful and predictable” — one that will not change within the subsequent three years, he stated.
“Now we have eradicated value-added tax on exported companies and the tax on stock-based compensation for workers of startups, in addition to the home fairness requirement for ICT firms,” he stated.
However critics say that his authorities’s newly imposed and likewise a number of proposed taxes will enhance the price of doing enterprise in Kenya, together with within the tech sector.
His administration in its first price range this 12 months doubled the digital service tax to three%, focusing on international tech giants that use the web to market and promote merchandise.
The federal government had projected it could rake in billions within the native forex, the Kenyan shilling, from the doubled digital companies tax, however critics warned it could discourage tech buyers.
Ruto insisted his nation was positioning itself as “Africa’s enterprise course of outsourcing and inventive financial system hub,” citing web penetration and a rising workforce.
Kenya has up to now been accused of not tightening labor legal guidelines to forestall the exploitation of staff by tech firms reminiscent of Meta who have been sued by former staff over poor working situations and accused of paying low wages to content material moderators.