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A US tech giant, Amazon, has agreed to set up a shop in Nairobi, Kenya, on the condition that Ruto scraps the policy requiring 30% of telecoms ownership to be local. This timely move comes at a time when Airtel Kenya was forcibly trying to sell a third of its stake to local investors.
President William Ruto, while addressing a regional business summit for investors in Nairobi yesterday, reckoned the rule saying that it had become a hurdle for large tech firms to operate in Kenya. Referring to Amazon, the president argued that hindering such big firms to operate in the country is equally denying skilled IT youths job opportunities.
Notably, Airtel Kenya will stand to gain hugely from the reckoning of the rule as it was struggling seeking Kenya investors to purchase 30.0% stake. This difficulty is attributed to the company’s loss making history given the mismatch between the company’s valuation and local investors’ assessment of its worth.
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“This position is untenable and has made it impossible for large corporations to invest in Kenya. We will review this position and remove this requirement to facilitate greater investment in our ICT sector,” said Dr Ruto.
The president added that he had been persuaded by a gentleman in Amazon Web Services that it would be impossible for large companies like Amazon to cede only 30.0% equity to any business they had no relationship with.
Kenya is set to benefit from foreign investors led by Microsoft, Amazon and Google who are willing to invest in growing economies on favorable terms.
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