US President Donald Trump has signed legislation extending the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) through December 31, 2028, giving Kenyan exporters another two years of preferential access to the American market.
The extension provides fresh certainty to manufacturers, exporters and investors who had faced renewed uncertainty over the future of the trade programme.
Kenya has welcomed the decision, with Investment, Trade and Industry Cabinet Secretary Lee Kinyanjui describing the extension as significant for businesses that depend on access to the United States market.
“This is a significant development for Kenya and provides much-needed certainty for exporters, manufacturers and investors who rely on preferential access to the United States market,” Kinyanjui said.
The legislation extends AGOA as part of H.R. 6500, the Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2027, a broader US federal spending measure that Trump signed into law this week.
The latest decision extends a trade arrangement that has played a major role in Kenya’s export sector since AGOA came into force in 2000.
The programme gives eligible Sub-Saharan African countries preferential access to the US market, including duty-free treatment for more than 1,800 products under AGOA, alongside thousands of products covered through other US preference arrangements.
Kenya has emerged as one of the programme’s significant beneficiaries, particularly through its textile and apparel industry.
The sector has built a large export business around supplying American retailers, with factories concentrated in the country’s Export Processing Zones (EPZs).
The extension therefore provides manufacturers with additional time to maintain production, attract investment and plan expansion without facing an immediate return to normal US tariff treatment.
The textile and apparel sector represents one of the biggest reasons Kenya has welcomed the renewal.
According to the Ministry of Investments, Trade and Industry, the industry supports more than 66,000 direct jobs in Kenya. The value of the trade has also grown.
Kenya’s apparel exports under AGOA reached approximately Sh60.6 billion in 2024, representing a 19 per cent increase from Sh50.8 billion in 2023, according to data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics cited by Kenyan authorities and industry reports.
The government sees the extension as an opportunity to encourage factories to increase production and investment rather than simply maintain existing operations.
Kinyanjui said the textile and apparel sector remains one of Kenya’s biggest beneficiaries of AGOA and urged the country to use the additional time to build a stronger export base.
While apparel remains the dominant AGOA-linked export for Kenya, the government wants businesses to use the new window to expand into other sectors.
Kinyanjui identified value-added agricultural products, leather and leather products, pharmaceuticals and manufactured goods as areas where Kenyan exporters can increase their presence in the US.
“Beyond apparel, our focus must now be on using this extended window to expand Kenya’s export basket and increase the range and value of products reaching the U.S. market,” he said.
Kenya already exports agricultural products such as flowers, tea, coffee and macadamia nuts to the US. The government now wants more of those exports to undergo processing and value addition locally.
Such a shift could allow Kenyan companies to earn more from the same products while creating additional manufacturing and processing jobs.
The latest extension follows a period of uncertainty for African exporters.
AGOA originally expired on September 30, 2025, leaving exporters without the certainty they had relied on when planning production and investment.
Trump subsequently signed legislation in February 2026 restoring the programme through December 31, 2026, with retroactive effect to September 30, 2025. That temporary extension meant another deadline was approaching at the end of 2026.
The new legislation pushes that deadline to December 2028, giving businesses additional breathing room.
The earlier lapse also created a mechanism for eligible exporters to recover certain duties paid during the period when AGOA preferences were unavailable. Kenya has been working with US authorities to facilitate those refunds.
The extension also matters because of AGOA’s provisions supporting Kenya’s apparel industry. Kenyan manufacturers can source certain fabric and yarn inputs from outside Africa, manufacture finished garments locally and export them to the US under AGOA preferences.
The continuation of the provision helps Kenyan factories remain competitive because local manufacturers do not produce all the textile inputs required by the industry.
This arrangement has helped Kenya establish itself as an important production base for American apparel buyers. Maintaining the arrangement through 2028 gives manufacturers more certainty when negotiating supply contracts and planning production.
Despite the relief created by the extension, the future of AGOA beyond 2028 remains uncertain.
The Trump administration has previously called for changes to the programme as part of its “America First” trade policy.
When Trump signed the earlier 2026 reauthorisation, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the administration wanted AGOA to generate more market access for American businesses, farmers and ranchers and to strengthen US-Africa trade. He also said the administration would work with Congress to modernise the programme.
The latest two-year extension therefore gives African countries additional time but does not settle the long-term structure of US-Africa trade.
