NAIROBI, Kenya – This summit comes at a defining moment. Global capital is looking for new frontiers, businesses are restructuring their operations and supply chains, and Africa is emerging as the world’s next major horizon for growth.
It is fitting, therefore, that we meet here in Nairobi, East Africa’s commercial capital, a gateway to the continent and a city built on enterprise, innovation and ambition.
I commend AmCham Kenya and the United States Embassy for sustaining this vital platform and bringing us together to turn shared opportunity into investment, trade and jobs.
This is the fifth edition of AmCham’s flagship summit since 2018. Previous editions have brought together more than 5,000 delegates from over 30 countries and generated commitments across priority sectors.
This year’s theme, “Advancing Mutual Prosperity Through Trade and Investment,” captures the next phase of the Kenya-United States relationship, measured by the volume of our trade, the scale of our investment and the jobs we create.
Kenya as a gateway to Africa
Kenya offers investors more than a national market.
Through the East African Community, we are connected to a market of more than 300 million people; through COMESA, to a market of about 700 million; and through the African Continental Free Trade Area, to a continent-wide market of 1.4 billion people.
That is Kenya’s proposition: a platform from which to produce for Africa and the world.
We seek investment that creates jobs, builds local value chains, transfers technology, expands exports and establishes Kenya as a regional hub for production and services.
The global competition for that investment is intense.
According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’s World Investment Report 2026, global foreign direct investment reached $1.6 trillion, while Africa attracted about $70 billion, or only 4.3 per cent of the total.
Africa must claim a larger share, and Kenya intends to lead that effort.
Kenya’s foreign direct investment has risen from $1.5 billion in 2022 to a record $3.2 billion last year.
This is a strong vote of confidence in our renewable energy base, digital economy and manufacturing potential.
But we are not complacent.
We know that investors compare jurisdictions, price risk and move quickly when conditions are right.
Capital goes where there is opportunity, but it stays where there is confidence.
Improving Kenya’s business environment
That is why improving the business environment has been central to our economic agenda.
Over the past three years, we have worked with business associations, foreign chambers and investors to identify the obstacles that raise costs, delay decisions and weaken confidence.
We have translated that dialogue into more than 50 business-enabling interventions across finance, taxation, business regulation, county licensing and special economic zone laws.
When I addressed this summit in 2023, I made specific commitments.
I said we would remove VAT on exported services. We did.
I said verified tax refunds would be paid within six months or become available for offset. That is now the law.
I said we would end the premature taxation of shares allocated to start-up employees. We did.
And I said we would remove the 30 per cent local equity requirement deterring major technology firms. We removed it.
The US Embassy’s “Business Climate List of Nine” helped sharpen this agenda.
Investor confidence is built not by insisting that everything is fine, but by listening to what is not working and fixing it.
We have gone further by reducing local ownership requirements for pension scheme administrators and equalising the corporate income tax rate for foreign companies with permanent establishments and domestic companies at 30 per cent.
We have also introduced incentives for special economic zones, pharmaceutical manufacturing, public-private partnerships, electric mobility and agricultural value addition, while advance pricing agreements will reduce transfer-pricing disputes.
Making county licensing easier
We are addressing the cost and complexity of county licensing through the County Licensing (Uniform Procedures) Act, 2024.
I call upon the Council of Governors and all county governments to accelerate its implementation, harmonise procedures, digitise applications and eliminate opaque or duplicate charges.
An investor should not encounter a different country every time a truck crosses a county boundary.
We are also bringing forward legislation modelled on international best practice, including the United States Paperwork Reduction Act.
The legislation will require every public agency to justify, simplify or eliminate the compliance burden it imposes on enterprise.
Before a new regulation is introduced, its public value must be clear and its economic cost understood.
The Food and Feed Safety Coordination Bill is another response to our dialogue with business.
It will replace the maze of agencies, forms and timelines that traders currently have to navigate with a more coordinated system, clearer processes and faster decisions.
This will help Kenyan produce reach American shelves more efficiently while ensuring that quality imports compete fairly in our market.
Strengthening investment protection
Through the Investment and Export Promotion Bill, 2026, now before Parliament, we intend to strengthen investment protection and facilitation.
It safeguards against unlawful expropriation, protects the repatriation of capital, profits and dividends, and proposes a specialised Investment Tribunal and a Presidential Dialogue Forum.
We are complementing these reforms with a digitised Investment One Stop Centre, where investors can submit applications, track approvals and engage government agencies.
Government must become easier to navigate, faster to respond and more accountable for results.
Ultimately, predictability is the product Kenya is pitching.
Capital does not move because a President issues a directive.
It moves when the rules are clear, licences are issued on time, verified refunds are paid, contracts are respected and agreed terms do not change halfway through an investment.
Mobilising private capital
We are matching regulatory reform with instruments that mobilise capital.
To de-risk private investment in green enterprises, we have established a Green Investment Fund with $40 million in seed capital and a target of crowding in $200 million in investment.
Nearly 100 Special Economic Zone enterprises licensed over the past four years have created 22,000 industrial jobs, while 118 Export Processing Zone businesses have created more than 32,000 jobs.
Four new public Export Processing Zones are scheduled to become operational by December 2026.
Ladies and gentlemen, the question, then, is not whether Kenya has opportunities.
The question is where we build together.
Digital economy
In the digital economy, Kenya offers a proven innovation ecosystem spanning mobile money, fintech, artificial intelligence, cloud infrastructure, digital services and business-process outsourcing.
Our goal is to make Kenya Africa’s leading digital economy and a trusted hub for advanced technology.
Trust is essential to that ambition.
The Strategic Goods Control Bill will strengthen oversight of sensitive technologies because, to attract advanced manufacturing and computing, Kenya must be a trusted node in the global system.
Energy and critical minerals
In the energy sector, we are expanding national generation capacity towards 10,000 megawatts over the next seven years, creating opportunities in geothermal development, transmission, battery storage, industrial power, green hydrogen and electric mobility.
In critical minerals, we are accelerating the responsible exploration and development of rare earth elements, titanium, graphite, lithium, niobium and other strategic resources.
Our policy is not simply to extract and export.
We want investment in processing and downstream manufacturing that creates value for investors while enabling Kenya to retain more value, develop skills and create better jobs.
Agriculture, healthcare and manufacturing
In agriculture, our priority is agro-processing, cold chains, modern logistics and access to global markets.
In healthcare, we welcome investment in pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, technology and infrastructure.
Across manufacturing, we seek enterprises that deepen local supply chains, transfer technology and expand exports.
These opportunities are already attracting investment.
American companies have committed more than $600 million to new projects since our last meeting.
Oracle selected Kenya for its first public cloud region in Africa; Coca-Cola has committed $175 million; Mars Wrigley inaugurated a $103 million production line at Athi River; and SC Johnson is establishing a new manufacturing plant to serve Kenya and other African markets.
We are pleased that Ford is exploring opportunities in Kenya.
Henry Ford’s proposition that those who build a product should be able to afford it speaks directly to our agenda of creating jobs, building local value and making quality products accessible.
Kenya’s creative economy
Kenya’s creative economy offers another major opportunity.
Our music, film, fashion, sport and digital talent can become significant sources of exports and employment.
But talent needs infrastructure, finance, distribution and strong intellectual property protection.
The proposed $120 million, 15,000-seat Zaria Arena at Railway City illustrates the scale of this opportunity.
Our ambition to host the Grammy Awards is not about one ceremony or one moment of fanfare.
It is about attracting studios, labels, platforms and investors, and making Kenya a permanent centre of African creative production.
We invite American industry leaders to help us build that ecosystem.
Kenya-US partnership
These opportunities build on a Kenya-United States partnership that is deep, tested and proven.
Over the past 25 years, the United States has invested more than $7 billion in the health of our citizens, helping save millions of Kenyan lives.
In December 2025, our countries signed a five-year, $2.5 billion Health Cooperation Framework, including an $850 million commitment by Kenya.
It represents a new model of shared responsibility and increasing self-reliance.
We do not seek to remain a recipient.
We intend to be a capable and dependable partner.
The same principle must guide our wider economic relationship.
Aid builds capacity, but trade builds nations.
Our ambition is a partnership measured in investment, exports and jobs.
We therefore welcome the extension of AGOA to December 2028.
It has supported Kenya’s apparel industry, jobs and export earnings.
Yet a preference granted is not the same as an agreement negotiated.
Kenya is ready to build an enduring, reciprocal and mutually beneficial trade relationship with the United States.
Building investor confidence
Ladies and gentlemen, 250 years of American invention were not built on guaranteed outcomes.
They were built on enterprise, rewarded risk and confidence that the rules would hold.
Kenya is building that same confidence — one reform, one institution and one investment at a time.
Government cannot deliver economic transformation alone.
Our responsibility is to provide infrastructure, uphold predictable rules and create an enabling environment.
The private sector turns those foundations into factories, technologies, exports and jobs.
That is why our partnership with business is not incidental to Kenya’s transformation; it is indispensable.
Kenya is keeping its part of the bargain.
We ask you to bring your capital, your technology and your standards.
Let us combine them with our talent, our energy and our access to Africa’s markets.
Do not look at Kenya simply as a market.
Look at Kenya as your platform to a continent of 1.4 billion people.
Produce here.
Innovate here.
Build your regional headquarters here and serve Africa from here.
To those already invested in Kenya: expand.
To those considering Kenya: decide, although, from where I stand, and I think you will agree with me, we have made that decision considerably easier.
And to those looking for the next frontier of growth: come and build it with us.
Move beyond interest to commitment; beyond exploration to investment; and beyond short-term transactions to long-term partnership.
Kenya is open for business. Kenya is ready for business, and Kenya means business.
I wish you a successful and productive AmCham Business Summit 2026.
I thank you.
