- The Daily Brief, by The Kenyan Wall Street
- Posts
- Reforming the ETA system
Reforming the ETA system
Kenya's #1 newsletter among business leaders & policy makers
Hello 👋🏾, it’s Brian from The Kenyan Wall Street!
Thank you for joining us for today’s edition of The Daily Brief! With 35,000+ subscribers from over 80 countries receiving this newsletter.
Top Story
🧳 Tourism CS Rebecca Miano Reveals Plans to Review ETA System
Tourism and Wildlife CS, Rebecca Miano
Kenya now ranks 46th in the ease of travelling out of 54 African countries, according to the 2024 Africa Visa Openness Index. How ironic! Considering that in January 2024, the government declared that the country was ‘visa-free’.
Apparently not. To replace the visa, the government introduced the Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) system. Many travellers to Kenya have to apply online for authorisation before leaving their country. The process could take three days to affirm eligibility for travel.
This has obviously worsened Kenya's position in the visa openness index because of many reasons which the Cabinet Secretary for Tourism and Wildlife – Rebecca Miano – has acknowledged. They include the requirement to fill in a bulk of information when applying for the ETA, a process that would have been simplified if the system was linked with the immigration department. Travellers have complained that some of the details would have been automatically plugged.
The most pervasive problem, however, is the delay. The 72-hour wait for authorization is not convenient for last-minute travellers. Moreover, travellers are not happy that a fresh ETA is needed when travelling each time.
Some Kenyans are asking government to do away with the system, taunting it as antithetical to the ‘Visa-free’ policy it believes it is pursuing. Miano thinks the ETA will work, only if they get back to the drawing board. She hinted that some of the reforms that would be taken into consideration include ensuring an ETA serves multiple travels for a certain period of time e.g. one or two years. Intense coordination with other state agencies will be required to make travel seamless.
Today's Poll
Do you think the government should reform the ETA system or do away with it? |
Results of Yesterday's Poll
Do you think it is wise to buy KQ shares as the airline resumes trading at the NSE?
Yes - 41.30 %
No - 58.70%
‘No’ leads with 58.70% of the total poll
💻 Kenyan Startups Beat Rest of Africa to Raise US$638 mn in 2024
Geographical distribution of startup funding in Africa 2024 | SOURCE — Africa: The Big Deal.
🔸For the second year in a row, startups in Kenya received the bulk of funding in 2024, 88 percent of the total raised in East Africa and more than a quarter of the continent’s total, according to a new report by Africa: The Big Deal.
🔸According to the data, Kenyan startups raised US$638 million in 2024 towering over Nigerian startups, which raised US$410 million.
🔸Egyptian startups emerged third with US$400 million raised and South African startups came fourth with US$394 million.
🔸The ‘Big Four’ garnered 84% of all start-up funding in Africa, retaining their dominance in their respective regions since 2019.
How much startups in Africa have raised since 2019 | SOURCE — Africa: The Big Deal
🔸The entire continent raised US$2.2 billion in 2024, which was 25% less than the amount startups raised in 2023.
🔸This was largely due to the financial crunch prevalent in the first half of 2024 as many countries globally tried to claw back to macroeconomic stability.
📉 Kenya’s Private Sector Activity Slows in December – Stanbic PMI
Stanbic PMI trajectory
🔸Kenya’s private sector expanded slower in December 2024 than in the month before, with the growth supported by improved sales amid slower employment, the latest Stanbic Purchasing Manager Index (PMI) shows.
🔸The index dropped marginally to 50.6 in December from 50.9 in November, reflecting sustained private sector expansion throughout the last quarter of 2024.
🔸PMI readings above 50.0 signal improvement in business conditions while readings below 50.0 imply deterioration.
🔸According to the report, a build-up of price inflation at the end of 2024 reflected a sharp increase in input costs prompting private sector firms to raise selling prices at the quickest rate since December 2023.
🧐 Listed Firms on CMA Radar over Shareholder Rights
Performance of corporate governance in listed firms over the years | SOURCE — Capital Markets Authority (CMA)
🔸The implementation of shareholders rights and other corporate governance structures in listed companies reduced marginally in 2023/24, according to an analysis by the Capital Markets Authority (CMA).
🔸The annual weighted overall governance score of listed companies has improved from a Fair Rating of 55% in 2017/2018 to 73.56% in 2023/2024.
🔸But it declined year on year by 2.15%, from 75.71% (Leadership rating) in the 2022/2023 financial year to 73.56% (Good rating) in the 2023/2024 financial year.
🔸The authority also noted that some of the listed companies failed to provide specific details and documentation on how their governance framework recognises equitable treatment and protection mechanisms for different types of shareholders.
“A bureaucratic organization is an organization that cannot correct its behavior by learning from its errors.”
Stories you missed
Opinion and Commentary
Video of the Day
In this episode of Investing Like an Executive, Andrew Barden, CEO of The Kenyan Wall Street, talks with Rebecca Miano, Cabinet Secretary for Tourism and Wildlife, about the booming impact of tourism on Kenya's economy.
Thank you for reading our newsletter!