Agency goes online to track FDI deals

KenInvest managing director Moses Ikiara. PHOTO | FILE

By JAMES KARIUKI
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Summary

• The FDI tool will indicate the status of foreign and domestic direct investments, source countries and metrics of preferred sectors.
• PIGA Kenya national coordinator Hellen Rintari said the FDI Tool was a must-have for any investment promotion agency (IPA) and government.

Kenya Investment Authority (KenInvest) has set up a web-based Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) tracking tool enabling it to generate reliable and timely investment statistics for investors and to guide marketing strategies.

The FDI tool, developed by KenInvest through technical and financial support of Partnership for Investment and Growth in Africa (PIGA) will indicate the status of foreign and domestic direct investments, source countries and metrics of preferred sectors.

PIGA Kenya national coordinator Hellen Rintari said the FDI Tool was a must-have for any investment promotion agency (IPA) and government.

“It becomes a critical marketing tool to filter and target investment opportunities into the country and aids in critical decision making and the Investor aftercare by the IPA,” said Ms Rintari.

KenInvest managing director Moses Ikiara said creation of an investment database will also be availed to investors, enabling them to match their investments to existing opportunities.

The first set of data from the FDI tool will be published in the investment promotion agency’s upcoming publication titled State of Investment Report (SIR), with contact information of the investors being made available to customers, public agencies and related businesses to enable business transactions.

“The FDI Tracking Tool will provide verifiable indicators, store information on actual investment inflows and enable analysis and reporting of investment data in the desired format that will enable the government make informed decisions on enhancing Kenya’s ease of doing business,” said KenInvest in a statement.

KenInvest also collaborates with the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) and the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) to track foreign capital inflows through periodic surveys. There have been six surveys done since 2010.

The three institutions most recently did a data collection exercise between September and November 2020, seeking data covering 2017, 2018 and 2019. The results are expected to be published soon.