Government In Aggressive Drive To Woo Chinese Investors

The government has embarked on various tax inducements in a bid to attract foreigners to aid the economy recovery agenda.

According to Pius Rotich, General Manager of Investment Promotion and Business Development at Kenya Investment Authority (KenInvest), the government has set aside over 300 local investment opportunities for potential investors especially those from China.

Speaking ahead of the Kenya International Industrial Expo, Rotich said the new program will be made possible with the help of the national treasury.

“As a government we will seek to remove all the bottlenecks that scare investors and tax incentives is always one of the best ways to attract investments,” he said.

As such, potential investors can leverage tax provisions by Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) such that an investor who incurs capital expenditure on building or machinery used for manufacture is entitled to an investment deduction equal to 100 percent of the cost.

Also, this will also include value added tax (VAT) exemption on all supplies of goods and services to enterprises.

It also includes reduction in corporate tax to 10 per cent from 30 per cent for a period of 10 years of operation and 15 per cent for a period of 10 years.

As earlier reported on WoK, Kenya’s debt towards China-funded infrastructure projects increased by a record KSh 73.48 billion amid an increased clearance of principal sums.

This places the country’s debt to China at KSh 1.4 trillion.

According to the expenditure data published by the Treasury, the amount of money paid to Chinese lender increased by 135.15 percent compared with KSh 31.25 billion in June 2021.

The Citizen reported that the money was wired to Exim Bank of China and China Development Bank in two batches.

The first batch of KSh 43.62 billion was wired around January 2021 and the second batch of KSh 29.86 billion in July 2021.

The repayments to Chinese lenders accounted for 81.4 percent of the KSh 260 million that the Treasury spent on servicing bilateral debt in the nine-month period through March.

Under the leadership of former President Uhuru Kenyatta, Kenya has been taking large loans from China since 2014 to build roads, bridges, power plants, and the standard gauge railway (SGR).

China accounts for about one-third of Kenya’s 2021-22 external debt service costs, is the nation’s biggest foreign creditor after the World Bank.