Policy Guidelines for the Formalization of Micro-, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises in Kenya

The study supports the Government of Kenya and recommends ways of leveraging existing regulations and policies governing cooperatives for use in developing the MSME formalization framework. It also provides a guideline for application to the process of formulating the national MSME formalization policy.

 

In Kenya - as in the other countries of the world - MSMEs are the backbone of the economy. MSMEs constitute about 98 per cent of all the business entities in the country. They provide about 30 per cent of job opportunities in Kenya annually. The majority of MSMEs in Kenya are informal and have not registered their businesses formally with government authorities. This policy guideline focuses on promoting MSME formalization in Kenya, which is modelled on good practices relating to the formalization of cooperatives of the country. Based on an overview of policy landscape and stakeholders involved in the MSME sector, the guideline intends to provide a policy framework promoting MSME formalization in addition to a proposed action plan with suggested tasks and delineated responsibilities across state and non-state actors. 

The guidelines are available in the following link: