Investing in Kenya: The common challenges faced by investors
Kenya, with a population of more than 4 million people has recently been viewed as one of the disadvantaged countries in the world. Despite random and daily motivation she gets from European and America leaders, it is still evident that the country is lagging behind in a number of sectors. The most important sector that if we need to pull the country away from poverty, we need to look at is the investment and the economy of the country. Kenya is considered as a country rich in natural resources and minerals such as gold deposits, sand, limestone, Soda ash, Oil & gas, among other minerals. Kenya also exports coffee, tea, pyrethrum, sisal, sunflower, among others.
The question that arises then is: If we have all these minerals and natural resources, why is Kenya still poor?
It is believed that there are a lot of both the land inhabitants and foreigners who are willing to invest in Kenya but there are some challenges that they face that hinder them from proceeding with their goal — they face some sort of challenges.
Some of these challenges include;
Political instability
The political atmosphere, especially during times of election has been a major threat to investors and business owners in Kenya. The wrangles that have been experienced in the country for the previous sophomore years have really affected the economy of the country. Some stores get looted, banks get invaded, racism talks rise, etc. These malicious activities have drastically pulled this country behind in terms of its economy. Kenya has built a “strong negative portfolio” when it comes to election periods. This has scared away a big number of potential investors from the country. To heal this, we need to stop political wrangles. The emergence of technologies such as Blockchain, we hope will help solve the problem of manipulation of citizens’ votes to favour certain parties.
Mismatch of what is taught in school and what the real world needs
This does not only affect Kenya. It is believed to be affecting the entire world. The education system we’re using today was developed about 500 years ago. There are a lot of new innovations that have happened. New ways of learning have been introduced. For example, in the early 1900s listening to podcasts was not a usual thing. Right now, research shows that more than 44% of the US population listen to podcasts on a regular basis. Same videos — people are currently using digital platforms such as YouTube to learn. It is clearly evident that what we’re taught in school doesn’t directly apply to what we do in the real world. Some of the world’s greatest minds such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Michael Dell all dropped out of college. Their successes have almost nothing to do with their schooling. A new education system should be put in place to help teach what is really needed in the real world. This will illuminate more light to young individuals who would like to start their own businesses but the school tries to box their minds.
Watch Malcolm Gladwell talking about how “our education system sucks balls“.
Corruption
Embezzlement of funds has really affected us over past years. How many times do we read in newspapers that a minister has mismanaged billions of shillings? How many times do we watch in televisions funds getting mishandled by ministers and other top authorities? If we could have channelled these mishandled funds to start companies that aim at solving some of the critical problems this country is facing such as insufficient electricity, insufficient healthcare facilities, technological equipment, among other facilities that help increase the living standards of the citizens, Kenya can top the chart of “the richest countries in Africa”.
The above problems greatly hinder this country from moving forward. If we can face them directly and start working towards changing the stories, we can be at a better position of securing more investors.
