Property Registration Gets Harder but Improves on Construction Permits

Kenya is among countries that improved their ease of doing business making it better for investors in 2020.

According to the Doing Business 2020, Kenya was among 40 countries that made the cut based on implementing regulatory reforms making it easier to do business in 3 or more of the 10 topics included in that year’s aggregate ease of doing business score.

The regulatory reforms are factored in from the previous year, in this case, making Kenya’s 2018/19 approach favour its scoring for 2020.

Kenya improved on several facets but failed in one metric on registering property.

Consents to Transfer and Payment Verification

The country made property registration more difficult because of an additional payment slip generation and increased online consent application and title search fees.

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However, property registration was made faster by moving consents to transfer and payment verification online.

In dealing with construction permits, Kenya made the exercise more transparent by availing building permit requirements online and by reducing fees.

In addition, it is now easier to get connected to the national grid. This was made possible by Kenya improving the reliability of electricity supply by modernizing its existing infrastructure and inaugurating a new substation in Nairobi.

Getting credit also improved since Kenya strengthened access to credit by introducing online registration, modification and cancellation of security interests and public online searches of its collateral registry.

On another front, Kenya strengthened minority investor protections by requiring shareholders to approve the election and dismissal of an external auditor.

With the easier way of filing taxes, Kenya scored a hit by ensuring that paying taxes was not a chore that was best avoided.

Kenya made paying taxes easier by implementing an online filing and payment system for social security contributions.

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The country also made resolving insolvency easier by improving the continuation of the debtor’s business during insolvency proceedings.

Credit Reference Bureaus

Kenya is now ranked 56^th in the ease of doing business index with a score of 73.2. On the continent, only Rwanda beat Kenya scoring 76.5 and placed at position 38.

In addition, the report notes that the launch of a credit bureau system in Kenya has helped to reduce interest rates, collateral, and default rates for loans at commercial banks.

Kenya was one of three countries including Jordan and Tajikistan which introduced online features to their existing registries.

The report notes that 23 economies implemented reforms improving credit information systems with one of the most common features of reform was being the expansion of coverage of individuals and firms in credit registries or bureaus.

Overall, New Zealand and Singapore topped the list with Georgia and New Zealand having the lowest number of procedures required.

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