Kenya

Ease of Doing Business in

Kenya

This page summarizes Doing Business 2013 data for Kenya. The first table lists the overall "Ease of Doing Business" rank (out of 185 economies) and the rankings by each topic. It also lists the economy's distance to frontier (DTF)** measure. The rest of the tables summarize the key indicators for each topic and benchmark against regional and high-income economy (OECD) averages.

Economy Overview

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Economy Summary
Starting a Business
Dealing with Construction Permits
Getting Electricity
Registering Property
Getting Credit
Protecting Investors
Paying Taxes
Trading Across Borders
Enforcing Contracts
Resolving Insolvency
Region Sub-Saharan Africa
Income Category Low income
Population 41,609,728
GNI Per Capita (US$) 820
Doing Business 2013 Rank Doing Business 2012 Rank Change in Rank
121 117 down -4

Doing Business 2013 DTF** (% points) Doing Business 2012 DTF** (% points) Improvement in DTF** (% points)
59.0 59.3 down -0.3
Topic Rankings DB 2013 Rank DB 2012 Rank Change in Rank
Starting a Business 126 132 up 6
Dealing with Construction Permits 45 31 up -14
Getting Electricity 162 162 No change
Registering Property 161 157 up -4
Getting Credit 12 9 up -3
Protecting Investors 100 98 up -2
Paying Taxes 164 168 up 4
Trading Across Borders 148 142 up -6
Enforcing Contracts 149 130 up -19
Resolving Insolvency 100 96 up -4

Economy Profile

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Subnational Data


Additional Topic

Additional Data

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Starting a Business

Info

The challenges of launching a business are shown below. Included are: the number of steps entrepreneurs can expect to go through to launch, the time it takes on average, and the cost and minimum capital required as a percentage of gross national income (GNI) per capita.

DB 2013 Rank 126 DB 2012 Rank 132 Change in Rank up6
DB 2013 DTF** (% points) 72.7 DB 2012 DTF** (% points) 70.1 Improvement in DTF** (% points) up2.6
YearNew business densityNumber of new limited liability companies
2011 1.122,391
Indicator Kenya Sub-Saharan Africa OECD

The total number of procedures required to register a firm. A procedure is defined as any interaction of the company founders with external parties (for example, government agencies, lawyers, auditors or notaries).

View methodology Procedures (number)
10 8 5

The total number of days required to register a firm. The measure captures the median duration that incorporation lawyers indicate is necessary to complete a procedure with minimum follow-up with government agencies and no extra payments.

View methodology Time (days)
32 34 12

Cost is recorded as a percentage of the economy’s income per capita. It includes all official fees and fees for legal or professional services if such services are required by law.

View methodology Cost (% of income per capita)
40.4 67.3 4.5

The amount that the entrepreneur needs to deposit in a bank or with a notary before registration and up to 3 months following incorporation and is recorded as a percentage of the economy’s income per capita.

View methodology Paid-in Min. Capital (% of income per capita)
0.0 116.0 13.3
No. Procedure Time to Complete Associated Costs
1 State registration of legal entity, statistical, and tax registration with the Center for Public Registration 3 days KES 100 per name reservation
2 Stamp the memorandum and articles and a statement of the nominal capital 5 days 1% of nominal capital + KES 2,020 for stamp duty on Memorandum and Articles of Association
3 Pay stamp duty at bank 1 day KES 100 for bank commission
4 Declaration of compliance (Form 208) is signed before a Commissioner of Oaths /notary public 1 day KES 200
5 File deed and details with the Registrar of Companies at the Attorney General's Chambers in Nairobi 7- 14 days KES 6,400
6 Register with the Tax Department for a PIN, VAT and PAYE online 1 day no charge
7 Apply for a business permit 5 days KES 10,000
8 Register with the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) 1 day no charge
9 Register with the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) 1 day no charge
10 Make a company seal after a certificate of incorporation has been issued 2 days between KES 2,500 and KES 3,500

** The distance to frontier (DTF) measure shows the distance of each economy to the "frontier," which represents the highest performance observed on each of the indicators across all economies included in Doing Business since each indicator was included in Doing Business. An economy’s distance to frontier is indicated on a scale from 0 to 100, where 0 represents the lowest performance and 100 the frontier. Read more...

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