Leading investment company in Kenya talks about Kenyan economy

Fred Murimi, Director of Centum Capital talks about the Kenyan economy.

How structured is the market here?

We take the early stage risks of putting opportunities together, turning them into bankable projects and then bringing other investors into the opportunities we have created.

The way the market and the economy are structured will vary from sector to sector. Some will be heavily regulated and some not. The financial services sector is one that is heavily regulated. We have invested in banking and fund management and we are seeing the regulators increasingly upping the ante in terms of regulations. Those are welcome moves because they are important sectors to the economy and the more stable they are, the better platform for growth of the economy. We welcome the improvements in regulations.

Other sectors such as the real estate sector are not as heavily regulated and there is still a lot of opportunity there. There is a huge demand for homes with a growing population looking to live and work in decent areas. Looking at trends, when you speak about urbanization in Africa in general, I think in 15 years about half the population will be living in cities that are yet to be built. There are lots of opportunities for investors to build those cities. Agriculture is also not a heavily regulated sector but that too will have to expand as the population expands and that will also present many opportunities. Typically, in our markets, we haven’t seen much in production and processing and those are areas we want to get involved in. There are plenty of opportunities for local and foreign investment as demand grows for food that is grown organically and meets certain standards. In terms of how the markets are structured in Kenya, we are fortunate that we have had an open economy and a free market for years. Business is used to competing both locally and internationally. I believe Kenya has a very well structured economy.