AgroPages-Kenya: Business Licensing Changes-Agricultural news

Kenya is considering revisions to its business licensing policies to make investment and market access less difficult in the country.

Several studies and surveys identified business licenses as the single most important regulatory constraint to doing business in the country. As part of regulatory reforms for business activity, the Kenyan government set up a committee in 2005 to review and assess more than 1,300 licenses affecting business operations.

The government hoped to create an electronic regulatory registry for all business licenses; to establish a Business Regulatory Reform Unit and a medium-term regulatory reform strategy. The goal is to come up with business-friendly licensing reforms that would reduce the number of licensing requirements and create simpler, more transparent regulatory processes.

As it stands, the network of government bodies with regulatory functions in Kenya is complex, and includes many vague, overlapping, and even contradictory responsibilities between different agencies.

The regulatory system in Kenya is "partially out of control,". A significant number of government institutions at the local and central levels issue and implement regulations in often discretionary and unchallenged ways.

The government hopes that its revisions will eliminate these problems and makes investment in the country easier.