Kenyan and British officials are to sign a deal on Tuesday to boost investment in Nairobi, with the aim of turning the city, which is home to some of the continent’s biggest banks, into Africa’s financial hub. The goal of the co-operation agreement, which officials have said could result in at least $2bn worth of deals during the next five years, is to help funnel international investment into Kenya and east Africa more broadly, people involved said. This should over time enable Nairobi to compete with Dubai, as a conduit for trade in the region. The deal includes closer links between the London and Nairobi stock exchanges, as well as moves to ease incorporation and registration of companies in Kenya, east Africa’s economic powerhouse. British insurer Prudential, which has grown rapidly in Africa, where it has 1.2m customers in eight countries, is the first non-African company to set up its regional head office in Nairobi under the new arrangements. Kenyan mining company Mayflower Gold has also announced plans to dual list its shares on both the London and Nairobi stock exchanges in a deal worth £14m.
Nairobi’s advantages included political stability and good connectivity, as well as a stable exchange rate and diverse pool of talent. The point now is to bring more pan-African businesses into Nairobi, could be an international bank from anywhere that wants to put its African headquarters in Nairobi.
The World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business ranking, which puts Kenya behind Mauritius and Rwanda. Nairobi is also ranked behind Dubai and, in Africa, after Casablanca, Cape Town, Port Louis and Johannesburg in the latest Global Financial Centres Index.